A recently created material is proving to be truly miraculous in that it can change shape and adopt different properties within a brief moment, opening up a world of possibilities across many industries.

The team at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in Ulsan, South Korea looked to nature, and found inspiration in octopuses for their ability to adapt and mimic whichever surface they choose in real-time.

Such a metamaterial – a material that can be engineered to exhibit properties and traits not observed in nature – could potentially open the door for a new era of adaptable soft robots and next-generation smart machines, due to its rich shape configurability (such as digital binary stiffness states, soft or rigid).

Professor Jiyun Kim and his UNIST scientists released a statement regarding their discovery, saying: “We have developed a metamaterial that can implement desired characteristics within minutes, without the need for additional hardware. This opens up new possibilities for advanced adaptive materials and the future of development of adaptive robots.”

Its “adaptive shock energy-absorbing material” holds special advantages for the construction industry, as it can lead to building advancements.

What makes this metamaterial even more exciting is that it has wide-range compatibility with many current technologies, including artificial intelligence.

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