Shape memory materials

A Yale team has developed a new “robotic fabric” that can change its shape and stiffness on demand or by sensing its environment. The material could one day be used in high-tech clothing, tents that set themselves up, or robotic parachutes.

Materials that can be deformed and then return to their original state as desired, such as shape memory alloys, could mean big things for aerospace, robotics, and even fashion if a new smart textile from Harvard University is anything to go by.

Imagine if there were a metallic device that could be transported all squished down, but that would automatically "bloom" out into its useful form when heated. Well, that may soon be possible, thanks to a newly developed liquid metal lattice.

​While shape-memory materials do have some interesting applications, many of them require the application of heat in order to change shape – and that could cause problems, in environments such as the human body. A new material, however, relies instead on a magnetically-responsive liquid.

Refrigerator technology hasn’t changed much in decades. Now researchers in Europe have shown promising early results with an experimental cooling system that uses magnetic fields and shape-shifting memory alloys.

Shape memory materials have shown promise in a number of applications. Now one team of scientists is examining potential biomedical applications, with polymer that can revert to its original form when triggered by heat from a human body. ​