NEWS & UPDATES

We are excited to share the completion of Micromachines Special Issue on 3D Printed Actuators. We created this Special Issue to highlight the impact of the 3D printer in bringing together scientists, engineers, technicians, entrepreneurs, and artists to create musculoskeletal-like actuation.

Our findings show that the interactions between the rigid structures (bones) soft nonlinear materials (tendons, and muscles) in a vertebral provide a remarkable increase in elastic energy storage and release, which is key in snakes’ efficient and explosive undulation speed. Using 3D printing, we emulated a simple 2D vertebral actuation system with 68% energy efficiency, compared to 2.5–30% efficiency in current purely soft actuators.

In collaboration with Sandia National Labs and New Mexico University, we applied the information impulse function (IIF) to detect undesirable but hidden dynamic events when aerospace structures exhibit random and chaotic behaviors due to turbulent and chaotic dynamics. The IIF, developed by Angela Montoya, outperformed current detection methods such as running Variance, and local Hölder Exponent.

Bart Boom presented at EMI 2022 concept designs for Gannet-inspired aerial-aquatic transformer robot. The objective is to engineer small transformers that can plunge into water at an incredibly high velocity (>60 mph).

A new approach for real-time tracking of precursors to damage in aerospace structures by feeling nonlinear vibrations. We can now extract hidden nonlinearities in stiffness, damping and dynamic phase to identify and sense precursors to structural deterioration.

Identifying infinitesimal disturbances in complex systems and structures. The method is capable of quantifying small disturbances, even in systems experiencing chaos. Findings and code are published in Entropy.

The illimited LAB welcomed new students this quarter, including Min and Wayne, designers who are pursuing their master’s degree at the University of Washington, and Allan, a web developer pursuing his bachelor’s at UW and currently at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden through an exchange program.

The illimited LAB is now at the historic Guggenheim Hall, home to one of the first Aeronautical Engineering departments in the nation, as one of seven originally established in 1929 with the help of the Guggenheim Fund for the Advancement of Aeronautics.