New programmable materials can sense their own movements

This image shows 3D-printed crystalline lattice structures with air-filled channels, known as "fluidic sensors," embedded into the structures (the indents on the middle of lattices are the outlet holes of the sensors.) These air channels let the researchers measure how much force the lattices experience when they are compressed or flattened. MIT researchers have developed a method for 3D printing materials with tunable mechanical properties, that sense how they are moving and interacting with the environment. The researchers create these sensing structures using just one material and a single run on a 3D printer. To accomplish this, the researchers began with 3D-printed lattice materials and incorporated networks of air-filled channels into the structure during the printing process.