"Transformers" is the latest science fiction blockbuster to hit the big screen. But as this ScienCentral News video explains, some of the technology that would have to go into a "Transformer" is becoming science fact.
Shape Shifting Technology
While "Transformers" makes the idea of shape shifting robots look easy, the technology to make it real would be more complicated.
"This 'Transformer' would need to maintain electrical connectivity, but yet still be able to move its parts and maintain all of that connectivity," says chemist Jennifer Lalli. "You can't do that with metal wire, because it will break."
Lalli and engineer Richard Claus at NanoSonic in Blacksburg, Virginia have patented a material they say could solve this problem. Called Metal Rubber, it conducts electricity like metal, but is able to stretch at least ten times its original length.
Jennifer Lalli (left) and Richard Claus from NanoSonic
"You can stretch these materials rather than just bend them or flex them, and they don't fall apart and they don't lose electrical conductivity," says Lalli.
A nanotechnology process gives one layer of plastic molecules a positive electrical charge and the next a negative charge. As a result, the Metal Rubber assembles itself.
"Similar to the way that your bones grow, individual molecules are formed layer by layer on a surface," says Claus. "And we gradually build up a layer cake, but each of the layers is only one molecule thick."
The end result is a flexible material that conducts electricity about as well as copper. It's also very tough.
"We can expose it to chemicals. We can put it in jet fuel. We can hit it with acetone. We can boil it in water overnight, and it doesn't mechanically or chemically degrade. We can heat it up to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit. It won't burn. We can drop it down to minus 167 degrees Fahrenheit, and it maintains its properties," says Claus.
The team has developed "Metal Rubber" fabric, which is washable, stretchable, and conducts electricity.
Since the original announcement of Metal Rubber in 2004 (see ScienCentral's original story), the team at NanoSonic has increased the material's flexibility five-times over and reduced its cost to roughly $10 per square foot. In addition, they have developed a Metal Rubber fabric, which is washable, stretchable, and conducts electricity. Lalli says it could lead to sensor-laden 'smart uniforms' for soldiers or firefighters, and even wearable computers.
"Instead of weaving heavy wires, which are not flexible, into clothing, we can actually pattern or weave these materials or just use these materials as the base fabrics for wearable electronics."
So while transforming super robots may still be far in the future, Metal Rubber could soon be found in some of our tamer electronics.
This research is registered with the U.S. Patent Office, and has been presented at the Smart Structures Conference in San Diego (March 2007), and the National Nano-Engineering Conference in Boston (November 2006) and was funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the Missile Defense Agency, the Ballistic Missile Association, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and NASA.
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