I have seen a very enigmatic paper in the past two days, in which I solemnly discussed the feasibility of making a mechanical device with popcorn _ (: popcorn "∠) _

Purchase our simple beach wedding dresses and fall in love with the perfect infusion of high quality and perfect tailor fit. Take a moment in this catalogue and realize you are lucky.

the corn kernels used to make popcorn are small and hard, and the tightness of the seed coat is very good. When the corn kernels are heated to a high enough temperature (about 180℃), the internal water vapor pressure is strong enough to break the seed coat, and the whole corn kernels will burst and suddenly expand. The expansion rate can be as high as 200%.

so, the authors of this paper say, since popcorn can deform automatically when heated, why not try it to drive the mechanism? So they measured the mechanical properties of popcorn and made some preliminary designs.

for example, here is a flexible mechanical claw that uses popcorn to drive bending. There is a wire around the popcorn for heating, and the popcorn burst causing the outside of the mechanical claw to expand more, so it begins to bend inward and grab the ball:

another mechanical claw driven by popcorn. The popcorn expansion pushes the upper plate upward, pulling the "tendon" of the "finger", so that the lower "finger" bends:

this popcorn device can lift heavy objects when heated:

the basic unit of the popcorn flexible device, the corn kernels are wrapped with wire and rolled up with thin film. Why does this picture look so strange? )

of course, the biggest problem with popcorn is that the deformation is irreversible, and the application scenario is subject to many restrictions.

I just think the riddle is a little fun, so I'd like to share it with you. The original text of the paper can be seen here: https://stevenceron.weebly.com/uploads/9/6/4/9/96490288/popcorn-driven-robotic.pdf

read more: Today I Learned: how did corn become popcorn?