Multimedia Gallery
3D-printed structure created by robot for energy-absorption experiment
This small plastic 3D-printed structure was created by the robot MAMA BEAR -- short for Mechanics of Additively Manufactured Architectures Bayesian Experimental Autonomous Researcher -- then crushed with the pressure equivalent to an adult Arabian horse standing on a quarter for an experiment in which the robot is attempting to make an object with the most efficient energy-absorbing shape ever. MAMA BEAR measures and records how much energy the structures absorb and how their shapes change after being compressed.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant CMMI 1661412.]
Learn more in the story A robot on a mission in Boston University's The Brink. (Date of image: 2024; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Aug. 9, 2024)
Credit: Jackie Ricciardi for Boston University Photography
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