Future Robotics: 3D Printing Graphene

The structure you see above has the potential to be stronger than steel and considerably less dense. Researchers at MIT, in collaboration with the Office of Naval Research and the Departmnt of Defense, headed by Markus Buehler and supported by the  intend to 3D print it using graphene (as opposed to the plastic model above) and the resulting structure would be (according to simulations) 10x stronger than steel and considerably less dense. The report was released earlier this month that they had successfully created this structure using a high resolution 3D printer. The structure itself is the main focus, after which they intend on experimenting with a variety of materials, leading up to graphene. You can see the tests conducted on the plastic part below: The structure is rather complex and creating it using any method other than 3D printing would be incredibly difficult. Incorporating this type of complex structure in order to increase strength and reduce weight always has significant potential applications, and we look forward to seeing what comes of this research.