BEST-Man - Bespoke Evolving Smart Technology for Manufacturing

We are witnessing incredible advances in manufacturing technologies, with the advent of additive manufacturing and enhanced construction techniques which allow us to produce parts, assemblies and even buildings that would have been
out of reach or extremely expensive just a few years ago. However, the end product of any current manufacturing process is static: once built, the part will preserve its shape and/or physical properties for its lifetime.

However, imagine the endless possibilities that would be available if a structure could dynamically change its shape or physical properties to respond to external stimuli. What if we could create and collectively control thousands of simple
entities? They could act as molecules and connect to each other to form a structure that responds to external forces and other stimuli. Creating such technology would represent a step change in the current manufacturing landscape. The aim of the BEST-Man project is to lay the foundations and create proof-of-principle demonstrators to show that such vision can be achieved.

To reach such an ambitious vision, BEST-Man will blend together elements from a diverse range of disciplines; mathematical modelling and simulations will be used to explore what type of entities, connections between them, actuation
and sensing are required to self-assemble a desired programmable structure; mechanical design and advanced manufacturing will guide the design of individual entities; electronic engineering will serve to implement sensing, control
and actuation; computer science will provide control algorithms that are scalable to thousands of cooperating entities to form smart products.

The final demonstrator will include 1000+ entities capable of self-reconfiguration in presence of external stimuli and/or user input. Examples of demonstrators to be considered include: morphing wing to be tested in a wind tunnel, a dining table which can be split into a smaller table plus a coffee table at the user command, and a self-healing object which uses colours to indicate region of excessive loading/cracks and repairs itself by rearranging entities.

The impact of the BEST-Man project can be broadly classified into two main categories: research & innovation impact and societal impact.

Given the intrinsic high-risk high-gain nature of BEST-Man, it is envisaged that its most immediate impact will be in the research and innovation community. The proposed activity brings together a wide range of recent results obtained by
different communities, spanning advanced manufacturing, mechatronics, robotics, computer science, electronics etc. Therefore, the research outcomes will be of interest to all these communities and will stimulate novel avenues of research across the board. The personal network of the PI, research conferences, journal publications and engagement with industry (and other stakeholders) through visits and workshops will be the main means to facilitate such impact.

BEST-Man has also high potential to stimulate interest in technology and manufacturing within the society at large. In fact, the creation of shapeshifting products, embedding smart functionalities such as automatic adaptation to loading conditions, will capture the imagination of the general public. The societal impact activities planned in BEST-Man include the use of the planned demonstrators to stimulate interest in STEM subjects (and more specifically in Manufacturing) among school pupils. Open events such as the public engagement workshop in month 24 will serve to reach out the widest potential audience as possible. Finally, use of online platforms and social media will be fully exploited to disseminate the research results both within the academic community and the general public.