Engineers have developed a new class of smart textiles that can shape-shift and turn a two-dimensional material into 3D structures.
The team from UNSW Sydney’s Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, and Tyree Foundation Institute of Health Engineering (Tyree iHealthE), led by Dr. Thanh Nho Do, have produced a material which is constructed from tiny soft artificial “muscles”—which are long silicon tubes filled with fluid which are manipulated to move via hydraulics.
These artificial muscles, which are surrounded by a helical coil of traditional fibers, can be programmed to contract or expand into a variety of shapes depending on its initial structure.
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