World's First Development of Material That Can Change Shape and Properties in Real Time

A material capable of changing its shape and properties in real time, surpassing the limitations of conventional materials, has been developed and is expected to be used as a core component in various machines. It is anticipated to be used in robots that can create diverse physical properties by combining with artificial intelligence (AI) in the future.

The research team led by Professor Kim Ji-yoon of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UNIST (President Lee Yong-hoon) has developed the world's first metamaterial that can control the shape and characteristics of a material in real time.

The metamaterial developed by the UNIST research team was selected as the back cover of the international academic journal Advanced Materials. This metamaterial can adjust its shape and properties in real time. Photo by UNIST

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Metamaterials are artificial materials designed to have special physical properties, unlike ordinary materials found in nature. The metamaterial developed by the research team is characterized by its ability to adjust its shape and material properties in real time. The team fused a low-melting-point alloy, which can change between representative states of matter such as liquid or solid, into the meta-pixels that form the basic unit structure of the metamaterial. By controlling the state changes of the fused alloy at the tiny pixel level, they were able to realize various properties of the metamaterial.

When the developed metamaterial was demonstrated as an impact energy-absorbing material, it was confirmed that it could appropriately change its properties according to unexpected impacts.

Conceptual diagram of real-time programmable metamaterials.

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Choi Jun-gyu, a master's and doctoral integrated course researcher and the first author, explained, “The developed metamaterial can implement desired properties within minutes without additional hardware,” adding, “It will present new possibilities for advanced adaptive materials, such as in the development of adaptive robots.”

Professor Kim Ji-yoon of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering stated, “This metamaterial, which can convert digital information into physical information in real time, is compatible not only with various existing digital technologies and devices but also with artificial intelligence technologies such as deep learning,” and added, “It will be the first step toward innovative new materials that can learn autonomously and adapt to their surroundings.” Professor Kim also revealed, “In follow-up research, we will enhance AI learning so that AI can independently create the necessary physical properties.”

This research was officially published on January 25 in the internationally renowned journal Advanced Materials and was selected as a back cover paper. The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS).

(Paper title: Digital Mechanical Metamaterial: Encoding Mechanical Information with Graphical Stiffness Pattern for Adaptive Soft Machines)

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