Elastic shape morphing of ultra-light structures by programmable assembly

An elastic shape morphing ultralight wing structure comprising:

• a substructure portion that includes a plurality of octahedral unit cells each having six nodes constructed to be connected together at said nodes to form a cubo-octahedral lattice structure, and wherein the substructure portion includes two types of octahedral unit cells each made from a different material;
• the substructure portion further comprising a plurality of interface parts constructed to interconnect the octahedral unit cells to form the cubo-octahedral lattice structure, wherein the interface parts include flat parts that provide mounting points for the overlapped skin panels and slope parts made from one flat part and two spacing parts, and include at least one leading edge part,
• wherein the interface parts form a part of the substructure portion, and
• wherein the interface portion has a central portion, the central portion having two sections extending therefrom, wherein each of the two sections is a lasercut plastic section, wherein an end of each of the two sections terminate in 3D-printed interface parts that connect to one of said nodes of two different unit cells of the plurality of octahedral unit cells;
• skin comprising a plurality of overlapped skin panels constructed to allow panels to slip over one-another during aeroelastic shape morphing;
• wherein the cubo-octahedral lattice structure is interconnected with said interface parts to produce said wing, the wing being externally covered by the skin, and the at least one leading edge part following a geometry of a leading edge of the wing;
• wherein the ultralight wing structure includes at least one root part and one tip part, and further comprises a torque rod actuatable from the root part and connected at a single point at the tip part;
• and
• wherein, the wing is constructed from the substructure portion, the interface parts and the skin to shape-morph under both external loading and actuation of the torque rod.

An aerodynamic shape-morphing structure built from a substructure portion that includes a plurality of octahedral unit cells interconnected with a plurality of interface parts, including at least one leading edge part having a unique geometry relative to others of the plurality of interface parts,

• the plurality of interface parts forming a part of the substructure portion, and
• the at least one leading edge part of the plurality of interface parts having a central portion, the central portion having two sections extending therefrom, wherein each of the two sections is a lasercut plastic section, wherein an end of each of the two sections terminate in 3D-printed interface parts that connect to one of a plurality of nodes of two different unit cells of the plurality of octahedral unit cells;
• wherein the aerodynamic shape-morphing structure includes at least one root part and one tip part, and further comprises a torque rod actuatable from the root part and connected at a single point at the tip part;
• the aerodynamic shape-morphing structure being constructed change shape at both different aerodynamic loadings and actuation of the torque rod to enhance efficiency at particular and predetermined aerodynamic loadings.