Imagine how different the world would be if matter were programmable, so that fundamental properties such as shape, stiffness, color, reflectivity of light and sound, and even load-bearing strength could be dynamically adjusted on demand. Although today's structure and product designers have many materials with varied properties to choose from, once a particular material is selected and cut to size, its properties remain fixed -- individual parts are unable to adapt to changing conditions. Making the dynamic behavior of matter programmable, i.e. creating "smart matter", has the potential to enable an entirely new generation of mechanisms, products, and processes in which members and parts actively adapt to changing conditions, achieving their goals through intelligent adjustment of their dynamic behavior. (Click here for pointers to more information about MEMS).
Achieving these goals will require a novel synthesis of technologies from the fields of active structural control, MEMS, smart materials, and distributed computation to create intelligent surfaces and materials that not only sense, reason about, and interact with their environment, but that can fundamentally alter both their own behavior and the behavior of other objects in their vicinity. A key aspect of PARC's research strategy is to move MEMS beyond its micro-scale origins (where MEMS means micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems), to create a new field that we call Systemic MEMS, which includes uEMS (micro-scale), mEMS (meso-scale), and MEMS (Macro-scale).
Work on Smart Matter is inherently multi-disciplinary, and this
is reflected in the way PARC
has approached this work. Electronic
Materials Lab scientists are studying ways to batch fabricate
these devices. In the Systems and Practices Lab, scientists are
addressing systems and software engineering issues, as well as
experimenting with a variety of novel control strategies for Smart
Matter. In the Document Hardware Lab, researchers are exploring
applications of MEMS to advanced printing and display technologies.
Some of PARC's
research accomplishments and activities include
a Smart Matter-driven paper path, smart beams and columns capable
of adjusting their load-bearing strength and stiffness, distributed
control strategies for Smart Matter, and novel fabrication techniques
that bring MEMS technology to bear on macro-scale objects.