This is me building a prototype for six hours straight. This is slave labor to my own project. This is what the DIY and maker movements really look like. And this is an analogy for today's construction and manufacturing world with brute-force assembly techniques. And this is exactly why I started studying how to program physical materials to build themselves.
这是我正在做一个模型 足足花了6个小时, 完全是苦力活。 这就是所谓的自己动手做和自造者运动。 这也是今日全球建筑和制造业的缩影: 到处可见费尽蛮力的组装技术。 这也是我为什么开始研究 如何让物理材料根据特定程序来组装自己。
But there is another world. Today at the micro- and nanoscales, there's an unprecedented revolution happening. And this is the ability to program physical and biological materials to change shape, change properties and even compute outside of silicon-based matter. There's even a software called cadnano that allows us to design three-dimensional shapes like nano robots or drug delivery systems and use DNA to self-assemble those functional structures.
但是,还有另外一个世界。 如今在微观纳米级上, 正在发生一场空前的革命。 这就是通过编程使物理和生物材料 改变形状、改变属性的能力, 它的应用范围甚至超过了硅基物质。 甚至已经有了一个叫cadnano的软件 我们可以用它来设计各种三維物体。 比如纳米机器人或者药物传输系统, 以及利用DNA自我组装各种功能结构。
But if we look at the human scale, there's massive problems that aren't being addressed by those nanoscale technologies. If we look at construction and manufacturing, there's major inefficiencies, energy consumption and excessive labor techniques. In infrastructure, let's just take one example. Take piping. In water pipes, we have fixed-capacity water pipes that have fixed flow rates, except for expensive pumps and valves. We bury them in the ground. If anything changes -- if the environment changes, the ground moves, or demand changes -- we have to start from scratch and take them out and replace them.
但是,如果我们再看宏观的人类社会生活, 还有很多问题没有被 这些纳米级技术解决。 如果我们看看建筑业和制造业, 有很多效率严重低下的地方,比如能源消耗 和过多的人工技能需求。 在基础设施方面,我们举个例子, 比如说铺设管道。 水管,我们的水管都是固定容积, 固定流量的,除了昂贵的水泵和水阀以外。 我们把它们埋在地底下, 如果有任何变动 - 比如环境变化, 地基移动或者需求改变- 我们就得从头再来, 把它们挖出来再换新的。
So I'd like to propose that we can combine those two worlds, that we can combine the world of the nanoscale programmable adaptive materials and the built environment. And I don't mean automated machines. I don't just mean smart machines that replace humans. But I mean programmable materials that build themselves. And that's called self-assembly, which is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through only local interaction.
所以我建议把这两个世界结合起来, 把纳米级上可程序化、能自我调节的材料 和生产环境结合起来。 我的意思不是自动化设备。 我指的也不仅仅是让智能机器替代人类劳动, 而是那些可以可程序化的材料实现自我组装。 这就叫做自我组装, 一种把各个无序的零部件组成一个有序的结构的过程, 这一切都只通过材料自身的相互作用来完成。
So what do we need if we want to do this at the human scale? We need a few simple ingredients. The first ingredient is materials and geometry, and that needs to be tightly coupled with the energy source. And you can use passive energy -- so heat, shaking, pneumatics, gravity, magnetics. And then you need smartly designed interactions. And those interactions allow for error correction, and they allow the shapes to go from one state to another state.
那么要把它应用于人类社会生活,我们又需要些什么呢? 我们只需要一些简单的条件, 第一个就是材料和几何形状, 这需要和能源材料紧密结合起来。 我们可以用被动式能源 - 比如热力、抖动、气压、重力、磁力。 同时我们也需要设计得非常巧妙的交互方式。 而且这些交互方式可以纠错, 可以让已成型的物体改变状态。
So now I'm going to show you a number of projects that we've built, from one-dimensional, two-dimensional, three-dimensional and even four-dimensional systems. So in one-dimensional systems -- this is a project called the self-folding proteins. And the idea is that you take the three-dimensional structure of a protein -- in this case it's the crambin protein -- you take the backbone -- so no cross-linking, no environmental interactions -- and you break that down into a series of components. And then we embed elastic. And when I throw this up into the air and catch it, it has the full three-dimensional structure of the protein, all of the intricacies. And this gives us a tangible model of the three-dimensional protein and how it folds and all of the intricacies of the geometry. So we can study this as a physical, intuitive model. And we're also translating that into two-dimensional systems -- so flat sheets that can self-fold into three-dimensional structures.
我现在要为大家展示我们已经做好的一些项目, 从一维、二维、三维 甚至到四维的系统。 在一维系统里 - 我们有个项目叫 "自我折叠蛋白质"。 思路是我们拿一个蛋白质的三維结构模型 - 这里我们用的是花菜蛋白 - 我们拿出它的主链 - 没有交叉链接的地方或者与环境的相互作用 - 我们把它分解成一系列的组成部分。 然后我们嵌入一定的弹性松紧度。 然后我把它抛向空中再接住, 它就变成了蛋白质本身复杂的三維结构。 它为我们展示了一个形象的 三維蛋白质模型,它是如何折叠的 以及它的几何复杂性。 所以我们可以利用这个实际直观的模型来研究蛋白质。 同时我们也把这个想法应用到二维系统里- 比如使平板能够自我折叠形成三維结构。
In three dimensions, we did a project last year at TEDGlobal with Autodesk and Arthur Olson where we looked at autonomous parts -- so individual parts not pre-connected that can come together on their own. And we built 500 of these glass beakers. They had different molecular structures inside and different colors that could be mixed and matched. And we gave them away to all the TEDsters. And so these became intuitive models to understand how molecular self-assembly works at the human scale. This is the polio virus. You shake it hard and it breaks apart. And then you shake it randomly and it starts to error correct and built the structure on its own. And this is demonstrating that through random energy, we can build non-random shapes.
对于三維系统,我们去年在TEDGlobal和Autodesk(欧特克) 以及Arthur Olson做了一个项目。 我们研究了分散独立的零件 - 就是怎样让各自分散的部分自发的组合在一起。 我们一共做了500个这样的烧杯。 里面有不同的分子结构 以及不同的可以相互混杂搭配的颜色。 我们把它们给了所有在场的TED观众。 这些形象的模型帮助我们 在宏观上理解分子是如何自我组装的。 这个是脊髓灰质炎病毒。 你使劲儿一摇,它就散架了。 然后你随便摇瓶子 它就开始纠错然后自己组合成本来的结构形状。 这个例子说明了我们可以利用不规则的运动能量 形成规则的物体形状。
We even demonstrated that we can do this at a much larger scale. Last year at TED Long Beach, we built an installation that builds installations. The idea was, could we self-assemble furniture-scale objects? So we built a large rotating chamber, and people would come up and spin the chamber faster or slower, adding energy to the system and getting an intuitive understanding of how self-assembly works and how we could use this as a macroscale construction or manufacturing technique for products.
我们甚至证明了它同样适用于更加宏观的层面。 去年在TED的 Long Beach, 我们做了一个可以制造其它设备的装置。 想法就是我们能不能自我组装家具大小的物体呢? 所以我们做了一个大的滚动的空间, 然后人们过来或快或慢的滚动它 来给这个系统增加能量 从而更形象的理解了自我组装是怎么一回事, 以及我们怎样 在产品的宏观建设或制造技术上利用它。
So remember, I said 4D. So today for the first time, we're unveiling a new project, which is a collaboration with Stratasys, and it's called 4D printing. The idea behind 4D printing is that you take multi-material 3D printing -- so you can deposit multiple materials -- and you add a new capability, which is transformation, that right off the bed, the parts can transform from one shape to another shape directly on their own. And this is like robotics without wires or motors. So you completely print this part, and it can transform into something else.
还记得我刚才提到了四维, 今天我们首次向大家展示一个新项目, 这是和Stratasys公司一同合作的, 它叫做4D(四维)打印。 4D(四维)打印指的是 我们利用多材料进行三維打印 - 就是我们可以使用多种材料 - 同时我们又新加一种能力, 就是变形。 一但从车床上下来, 这些不同的零部件就可以直接自发的变成其他的形状, 就像是没有电线或者马达驱动的机器人。 所以我们把一个部分完整的打印出来, 它就可以自己变成其它的物体形状。
We also worked with Autodesk on a software they're developing called Project Cyborg. And this allows us to simulate this self-assembly behavior and try to optimize which parts are folding when. But most importantly, we can use this same software for the design of nanoscale self-assembly systems and human scale self-assembly systems. These are parts being printed with multi-material properties. Here's the first demonstration. A single strand dipped in water that completely self-folds on its own into the letters M I T. I'm biased. This is another part, single strand, dipped in a bigger tank that self-folds into a cube, a three-dimensional structure, on its own. So no human interaction. And we think this is the first time that a program and transformation has been embedded directly into the materials themselves. And it also might just be the manufacturing technique that allows us to produce more adaptive infrastructure in the future.
我们也和Autodesk(欧特克)合作了他们正在开发的Project Cyborg软件。 这个项目让我们可以模拟自我组装这种行为 以及优化哪些部件应该在何时折叠变形。 但是,最重要的是,我们可以利用同样的软件 设计纳米级的自我组装系统 以及人类生活中的自我组装系统。 这些是用多材料属性打印出来的零件 这是第一个演示, 把一条链子浸在水里 它可以完全自我折叠成 字母M. I. T (美国麻省理工学院)。 我确实偏心。 另外一个演示,把一条链子浸在一个大缸里, 它会自我折叠变成一个三維结构的立方体, 没有任何人力的影响。 我们认为这是首次 把一个程序软件和变形 一起直接的嵌入(应用)到材料中去。 或许这将是一种制造技术, 能让我们在未来生产更多的可自我调节的基础设施设备。
So I know you're probably thinking, okay, that's cool, but how do we use any of this stuff for the built environment? So I've started a lab at MIT, and it's called the Self-Assembly Lab. And we're dedicated to trying to develop programmable materials for the built environment. And we think there's a few key sectors that have fairly near-term applications. One of those is in extreme environments. These are scenarios where it's difficult to build, our current construction techniques don't work, it's too large, it's too dangerous, it's expensive, too many parts. And space is a great example of that. We're trying to design new scenarios for space that have fully reconfigurable and self-assembly structures that can go from highly functional systems from one to another.
我知道大家现在大概会想, 好吧,看着挺酷的,但是我们怎么把它应用到生产环境里? 我在MIT(美国麻省理工学院)开展了一个实验室, 它叫做“自我组装实验室”。 我们致力于为实际生产环境开发 可程序化的材料。 我们认为有几个关键部分 它们可以在相当短期内得到应用。 其中之一就是在极限环境下。 有些情况是建造起来非常困难, 我们现有的建造技术行不通的。 它太大,太危险,太昂贵,太庞杂。 太空就是一个非常好的例子。 我们正在为太空环境设计新的 可以完全重置和自我组装的结构。 它们可以自我转化成各种功能强大的系统。
Let's go back to infrastructure. In infrastructure, we're working with a company out of Boston called Geosyntec. And we're developing a new paradigm for piping. Imagine if water pipes could expand or contract to change capacity or change flow rate, or maybe even undulate like peristaltics to move the water themselves. So this isn't expensive pumps or valves. This is a completely programmable and adaptive pipe on its own.
我们再回到基础设施建设。 在这个领域,我们正和波士顿一家叫Geosyntec的公司合作, 正在开发一种新的管道模板。 想象一下如果水管可以膨胀或者收缩 来改变容积、改变流量、 它甚至可以自己起伏蠕动来传输水。 这就不需要昂贵的水泵或者水阀了。 这是一个完全可程序化和自我调节的管道。
So I want to remind you today of the harsh realities of assembly in our world. These are complex things built with complex parts that come together in complex ways. So I would like to invite you from whatever industry you're from to join us in reinventing and reimagining the world, how things come together from the nanoscale to the human scale, so that we can go from a world like this to a world that's more like this.
我今天想要提醒大家的是 - 当今残酷的组装现实。 这些庞杂的集合体是用复杂的零件 以繁复的方式组装起来的。 所以,我真诚的邀请大家,不管你们来自哪个领域, 和我们一起重塑和重新想象这个世界, 怎样将微观纳米世界和宏观人类生活的事物结合在一起。 从而,我们可以从这样一个世界过渡到 一个更类似于这样的世界。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)
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