Programming Material Intelligence:
An Additive Fabrication Strategy
for Self-shaping Biohybrid Components
Tiffany Cheng
1(B) , Dylan Wood
1 , Xiang Wang
2 , Philip F. Yuan
2 ,
and Achim Menges
1
1 Institute for Computational Design and Construction, University of Stuttgart,
Stuttgart, Germany
tiffany.cheng@icd.uni-stuttgart.de
2 College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Abstract. This paper presents an integrative approach to adaptive
structures, which harnesses the scale and strength of natural material
actuators such as wood as well as the functional physical programming of
material properties enabled by 3D-printing. Passively actuated adaptive
systems represent a growing field within architecture, and wood’s innate
capacity for hygroscopic responsiveness can be instrumentalized for use
as a natural actuator; however, the internal compositions of wood cannot
be fully customized. With 3D-printing, it is possible to tailor the internal
substructure of physical objects. We introduce a material programming
and additive fabrication method for designing macro-scale objects with
anisotropic stiffness and elasticity of varying magnitudes using functional
patterns, and embedding natural wood actuators into the synthetic 3Dprinted structures. In place of electronics and digital control, movement
is encoded in the physical material and fabrication logic—demonstrating
how self-shaping biohybrid components can emerge from a synergy of
natural and synthetic materials.
Keywords: Material programming · Additive manufacturing ·
Mechanical metamaterials · Bio-based actuation · Autonomous systems
1 Introduction
Passively actuated adaptive systems represent a growing field in architecture
and engineering. Many bio-based materials have the capacity to change shape
based on external environmental stimuli such as heat or humidity. Wood is a sustainable, readily available, easily machinable, and high-performance construction
material with a natural capacity for moisture-induced and direction-dependent
swelling and shrinking. By accessing this inherent hygroscopic and orthotropic
behavior in a bilayer configuration, wood becomes a natural actuator that can
produce shape changes in curvature through bending [12]. This adaptiveness
c
Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
V. Vouloutsi et al. (Eds.): Living Machines 2020, LNAI 12413, pp. 36–45, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64313-3_5
An Additive Fabrication Strategy
for Self-shaping Biohybrid Components
Tiffany Cheng
1(B) , Dylan Wood
1 , Xiang Wang
2 , Philip F. Yuan
2 ,
and Achim Menges
1
1 Institute for Computational Design and Construction, University of Stuttgart,
Stuttgart, Germany
tiffany.cheng@icd.uni-stuttgart.de
2 College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Abstract. This paper presents an integrative approach to adaptive
structures, which harnesses the scale and strength of natural material
actuators such as wood as well as the functional physical programming of
material properties enabled by 3D-printing. Passively actuated adaptive
systems represent a growing field within architecture, and wood’s innate
capacity for hygroscopic responsiveness can be instrumentalized for use
as a natural actuator; however, the internal compositions of wood cannot
be fully customized. With 3D-printing, it is possible to tailor the internal
substructure of physical objects. We introduce a material programming
and additive fabrication method for designing macro-scale objects with
anisotropic stiffness and elasticity of varying magnitudes using functional
patterns, and embedding natural wood actuators into the synthetic 3Dprinted structures. In place of electronics and digital control, movement
is encoded in the physical material and fabrication logic—demonstrating
how self-shaping biohybrid components can emerge from a synergy of
natural and synthetic materials.
Keywords: Material programming · Additive manufacturing ·
Mechanical metamaterials · Bio-based actuation · Autonomous systems
1 Introduction
Passively actuated adaptive systems represent a growing field in architecture
and engineering. Many bio-based materials have the capacity to change shape
based on external environmental stimuli such as heat or humidity. Wood is a sustainable, readily available, easily machinable, and high-performance construction
material with a natural capacity for moisture-induced and direction-dependent
swelling and shrinking. By accessing this inherent hygroscopic and orthotropic
behavior in a bilayer configuration, wood becomes a natural actuator that can
produce shape changes in curvature through bending [12]. This adaptiveness
c
Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
V. Vouloutsi et al. (Eds.): Living Machines 2020, LNAI 12413, pp. 36–45, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64313-3_5