Made prototype programmable fiberglass fabric

Memory materials are not new, but for the first time, Harvard physicists forced a flat plate to assemble into relatively complex structures.

A square fiberglass plate, lined with a silicon interlayer and a foil of 32 triangles, is first folded like an origami, and then heated to 420 degrees for half an hour. In 30 minutes, the folds “remember” which object was folded from the sheet (so far only a boat or plane is obtained).

If you turn the plate to cool and then heat it again, but to 70 degrees, then the sheet itself will fold into the desired design. How this happens you can watch the video. Round dots are magnets that prevent the assembled boat from falling apart after it cools down again.

The second stage of the researchers' work is aimed at teaching the plates to also turn around independently. Then from them it will be possible to collect something useful already. Solar panels for example.

via seas.harvard.edu