They create a battery that retracts imitating the movement of the snake’s scales
Many times we are inspired by nature when creating new projects in the world of technology, and today we see it again with a clear example.
An interesting project has arisen carried out by a team of engineers, who took on the task of creating a flexible battery capable of stretching and to withdraw imitating the movement of the snake’s scales.
When thinking about the potential applications that this new battery could have, there are various scenarios where its functions could be used, such as catastrophes or emergencies, or, to be implemented in everyday wearables or squishy robots.
A team from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials was involved in the development of this battery, led by Bonkyun Jang, Principal Investigator, in collaboration with Seungmin Hyun, a member of the Department of Nanomechanics.
This is how everyone joined their efforts to achieve this structure, but what was the decision to make it replicate the movement of the snake’s scales?
Although the scales of snakes at first glance appear to be rigid, the truth is that each one is able to fold over the next, acting, as well as a barrier that offers the snake’s body protection against attacks or collisions.
Added to this, the scales have properties that make them a highly flexible element, qualities that allow it to adapt without problems to the environment.
All this was taken into account by the KIMM research team, then proceeding to find a way to replicate it in the design of a stack that could be stretched without compromising stability and performance Of the same.
To achieve this, the team created a mechanical meta-structure that simulated the scale of a snake. In the end, new technology made it possible for the structure to acquire this movement as a result of the organization of multiple small, hard batteries that when combined they form a structure similar to the scales of a snake.
Regarding the safety of the battery, the KIMM team managed to minimize the deformation of the materials that compose it, also implementing an optimized shape for each battery cell, generating as a final result a high capacity per unit size.
