Ultra-Lightweight Mechanical Metamaterials for Mitigating Impacts and Crashes of Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles are a transportation technology with potentially transformative potential for how passengers and goods are ferried in urban environments. A critical barrier to UAM adoption is ensuring safety of passengers in hard-landing and crash scenarios. Our proposed solution is to develop an advanced materials system that is light-weight, highly energy-absorbent/dissipative, and capable of out-performing current solutions by providing multi-/omnidirectional impact protection. Current solutions typically fail in this latter regard, and instead trade-off between the amount of energy absorbed and the directional sensitivity to a given impact. Our approach circumvents this trade-off by utilizing Origami-Inspired Mechanical Metamaterials (OIMMs), which are a new class of advanced materials systems. Essentially, OIMMs are designed by embedding repeated geometric patterns into a base material to augment and enhance the base material’s properties. The result is a metamaterial that is lighter, stronger, and more multi-functional. Our SBIR Phase I effort was successful at developing OIMMs that satisfy the technical criteria desired in energy absorbing devices without making the trade-offs typically found in such systems. In this SIBR Phase II proposal, we seek to build on the success of our feasibility study to: (1) further validate the properties of our OIMM structures in empirical tests; (2) determine a pathway for scalable manufacturing of high-performance OIMMs; and (3) demonstrate scalable manufacturing of OIMMs for UAM vehicle crash protection. If successful, our deliverables will include new IP that we will commercialize in the trucking/semi-trailer manufacturing industry, where OIMMs have the potential to displace high-density foams currently used in the construction of semi-trailers. Our commercial success in ground-based transportation will ensure OIMM crash protection materials are available for the UAM market as it continues to mature.

We anticipate the greatest opportunities for OIMMs in future NASA applications will arise from the ability to decrease weight while retaining multi-/omnidirectional mechanical function: -Crash-landing protection for UAV/drones/rover vehicles (ultra-lightweight protection from impact forces) -Physical protection during planetary exploration (Moon to Mars Campaign) -Deployable materials for protected habitable spaces on manned missions (Moon to Mars Campaign) -Lander systems technologies that absorb/dissipate/redirect energy

Our market research has indicated a variety of potential applications in the public/private sector: -Lightweighting in transportation including semi-trailer manufacturing and electric vehicles -Advanced materials for defense (USAF/Lockheed Martin/Boeing dual-use) -Body armor for US Soldier protection (US Army dual-use) -Protection of vertical lift devices in the commercial UAVs / drone market

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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