4D Printing

Italian researchers have created a novel 4D-printed biodegradable 'seed robot' that changes shape in response to changes in humidity and can navigate through the soil. The device has great potential as a new way of monitoring the environment.

The embedding of fibers within 3D-printed objects can be used to add properties such as electrical conductivity or extra strength to those items. Now, a shape-changing print nozzle has been developed to vary the orientation of those fibers – as the printing is in process.

In nature, pest insects and other parasites latch onto their hosts by inserting backward-facing barbs into their tissue. Scientists have now copied that strategy, in a system that could someday replace painful hypodermic needles.

From the bow to the bunker buster to the the hydrogen bomb, new technologies have changed the face of warfare, and 3D printing looks set to be just as revolutionary.

Researchers at the University of Wollongong, Australia, have created a 3D printer-compatible hydrogel that is mechanically tough and able to repeatedly change shape in response to water temperature.

Lots of people make their own robots, and in all sorts of ways, but have you ever heard of anyone baking one in an oven? Researchers at MIT have injected further heat into the evolving 4D printing space by demonstrating how to create self-assembling bodies that fold together when baked.