title: Materials science. Materials that couple sensing, actuation, computation, and communication.
abstract: Tightly integrating sensing, actuation, and computation into composites could enable a new generation of truly smart material systems that can change their appearance and shape autonomously. Applications for such materials include airfoils that change their aerodynamic profile, vehicles with camouflage abilities, bridges that detect and repair damage, or robotic skins and prosthetics with a realistic sense of touch. Although integrating sensors and actuators into composites is becoming increasingly common, the opportunities afforded by embedded computation have only been marginally explored. Here, the key challenge is the gap between the continuous physics of materials and the discrete mathematics of computation. Bridging this gap requires a fundamental understanding of the constituents of such robotic materials and the distributed algorithms and controls that make these structures smart.
authors: Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: McEvoy
authors: Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA. ncorrell@colorado.edu.
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Correll
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057005:Bioengineering; D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D001701:Bionics; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D058025:Interdisciplinary Studies; D012371:Robotics; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted