Shape-shifting surfaces
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorCraig Perry Lusk
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Shape-shifting surfaces that retain their effectiveness as physical barriers while undergoing changes in shape. The shape changes include any motion that makes the surface more effective at performing its function, such as expansion, shrinkage, twisting, encircling, wiggling, swallowing or constricting. The shape-shifting surfaces include tiled arrays of polygonal cells, each cell including specifically-designed compliant flexures attached to specifically-shaped overlapping thin plates or shells. Applications for such surfaces include micro-scale cellular engineering and macro-scale biomedical applications, recreational uses, national security, and environmental protection.
Claims23
A unit cell shape shifting surface, comprising:
- a plurality of layers adjacent overlapping side members;
- said side members including compliant flexures and plate segments;
- said complaint flexures enabling substantially straight line motion;
- said overlapping side members being joined at nodes and being pivotal about said nodes, and
- said overlapping side members forming a contiguous line of sight barrier.
A shape-shifting surface, comprising:
- a single polygonal cell;
- said single polygonal cell including compliant flexures attached to structures that retain their effectiveness as physical barriers while undergoing changes in shape;
- said changes in shape selected from a group of changes including expansion, shearing, shrinkage, twisting, vibrating, encircling, wiggling, swallowing or constricting.
A shape-shifting surface, comprising:
- a tiled array of polygonal cells;
- each polygonal cell of said tiled array including compliant flexures attached to structures that retain their effectiveness as physical barriers while undergoing changes in shape;
- said changes in shape selected from a group of changes including expansion, shearing, shrinkage, twisting, vibrating, encircling, wiggling, swallowing or constricting.
A shape-shifting structure, comprising:
- a truncated icosahedron.
A shape-shifting surface, comprising:
- a spatial structure formed of compliant mechanisms.
A method of incorporating shape-shifting surfaces in existing design tools, comprising the step of:
- modeling a shape-shifting system cell using a single finite element for each unit cell, with material properties that are a known modification of the material used to fabricate the compliant portion of the unit cell so that a well-characterized shape-shifting system relates the properties of a unit cell to the properties of a geometrically similar element of bulk material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.