AI and robotics enhance design of sustainable aerogels for wearable tech

Engineers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have developed a model that combines machine learning and collaborative robotics to overcome challenges in designing materials for wearable green technology.

A research team led by Po-Yen Chen, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, has developed an accelerated method for producing aerogel material for use in wearable heating applications. Nature Communications—Automate the process of designing new materials.

Similar to water-based gels but made using air, aerogel is a lightweight, porous material used in insulation and wearable technology due to its mechanical strength and flexibility. But while seemingly simple, the aerogel assembly line is complex. Researchers rely on extensive time-consuming experimentation and an empirical approach to explore the vast design space and engineer the materials.

To overcome these challenges, the research team combined robotics, machine learning algorithms, and materials science expertise to enable the rapid design of aerogels with programmable mechanical and electrical properties. Their predictive models are built to generate sustainable products with 95% accuracy.

“Materials science engineers often struggle to deploy machine learning designs due to a lack of high-quality experimental data. Our workflow, which combines robotics and machine learning, not only improves data quality and collection rates, but also helps researchers navigate complex design spaces,” Chen said.

The team's strong, flexible aerogel was made using conductive titanium nanosheets as well as natural ingredients such as cellulose (an organic compound found in plant cells) and gelatin (a collagen-derived protein found in animal tissue and bones).

The researchers say the tool can be expanded to address other applications of aerogel design, including oil spill cleanup, sustainable energy storage and green technologies used in thermal energy products such as insulating windows.

“Combining these approaches puts us at the forefront of materials design with customizable complex properties. We predict that this new scale-up production platform can be leveraged to design aerogels with unique mechanical, thermal and electrical properties suited to harsh working environments,” said Eleonora Tubaldi, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a collaborator on the study.

In the future, Chen's group plans to conduct research to understand the microstructure that is related to the flexibility and strength properties of aerogels.