"AI Tool Unveils Realistic Metamaterials with Unusual Properties"

Researchers from TU Delft have developed an AI tool that can discover and design realistic "metamaterials" with extraordinary properties, making them fabrication-ready and durable. These metamaterials, whose properties are determined by their structure rather than molecular composition, can exhibit unnatural and extreme properties, such as behaving like a fluid despite being solid. The AI tool uses deep-learning models to solve the complex "inverse problem" of finding the geometry that gives rise to desired properties, bypassing previous simplifying assumptions. This breakthrough could lead to new applications in orthopedic implants, surgical instruments, soft robots, adaptive mirrors, and exo-suits.