Harvard researchers demonstrate shape shifting lattices

Developed by researchers at Harvard University the lattices are composed of multiple materials that grow or shrink in response to changes in temperature. To demonstrate the technique, the team printed flat lattices that morph into a frequency-shifting antenna or the face of pioneering mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in response to a change in temperature.

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"Using mathematics and computation to design form, and a combination of multi-scale geometry and multi-material printing to realise it, we are now able to build shape-shifting structures with the potential for a range of functions," explained L Mahadevan, Professor of Physics and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard

To create complex and doubly-curved shapes the team turned to a bilayer, multimaterial lattice design. "The open cells of the curved lattice give it the ability to grow or shrink a lot, even if the material itself undergoes limited extension," said Wim M. van Rees co-first author of a paper on the project published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.