Adaptive and Deployable Lightweight Civil Infrastructure

Adaptive and Deployable Lightweight Civil Infrastructure Current infrastructure is designed and built such that it must simultaneously comply with all possible loads. This leads to overdesigned structures that are inefficient in terms energy and cost. A structure that can self-identify damage, adapt, and learn for future events addresses the emerging field of intelligent infrastructure and structural health monitoring through inspiration from biology. To achieve this type of structure requires balance of structural engineering, architecture, mechanical engineering, computer science, and robotics. Deployable active structures that change shape either autonomously or remotely to accommodate challenging environments are rare. Tensegrity structures are geometrically non-linear, they are ideal candidates for studying deployable structures. Through actuation, origami-inspired structures can also be repeatedly deployed for ease of transportation and installation. The grand challenge of this work is addressing uncertainties between modeling and experimental testing for large-scale shape changing structures. To address this challenge, SMARTI lab employs optical tracking and computer vision for high-definition measurement and additive manufacturing for optimized connections. This seminar will present work on adaptive and deployable structures using sustainable materials and control algorithms for resilient infrastructure. Learning Objectives -Identify applications for adaptive structures in civil infrastructure. -Explain the challenges in actuator placement within large-scale deployable structures. -Evaluate the material reduction in deployable geosystems when utilizing shape-changing elements to increase surface area for tensile loading of foundations.