US researchers claim progress in self-propelled materials
Lessons from nature inform US Army-funded research into new ways of moving machines. If this research is taken further forward, it could result in vehicles that do not consume large quantities of fuel or require bulky motors.
US Army-funded research has developed materials that can move without the aid of motors or human hands, raising the prospect of autonomous systems that could exploit energy from their local environments.
The research was led by a team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst), using funding from the Army Research Office, part of the Army Research Laboratory, itself an element of the Combat Capabilities Development Command.
Through the research – which was originally published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Materials – the team created materials that move from their own energy.
The research is built on the ‘snapping’
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