SKIRMISHER

Like something out of Terminator 2, researchers are developing techniques for warfare of the future to create materials that self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves. These capabilities offer the possibility for morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves in any climate, and “soft” robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.

A revolutionary new technology in being developed by DARPA that may allow future war leaders to command their equipment to physically change itself to meet new operational needs or to form spare parts or tools.

“You’re blurring the distinction between materials and machines. Materials act like computers and communications systems, and communications systems and computers act like materials,” program manager Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin says.

The Programmable Matter program is now approximately five months into its second phase, which is scheduled to last about 15 months. The first phase of the effort involved five teams, two from Harvard University, two from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and one from Cornell University made up of experts from a range of disciplines such as computer scientists, roboticists, biologists, chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, physicists and artists

Among the fascinating research projects is a wrench that can it disassembles itself back into its components and re-forms into a hammer

The teams methods range from developing two-dimensional objects that fold into three-dimensional shapes to particles that build up to larger structures. One group is building what Zakin describes as “self-folding origami” machines that use specialized sheets of material with built-in actuators and data. These machines use cutting-edge mathematical theorems to fold themselves into virtually any three-dimensional object.

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