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The Ohio State University

Mechanical Engineering

ISSL

The Intelligent structures and systems laboratory was founded on October 1, 1995. The mission of the laboratory lies in the development of multidisciplinary and innovative techniques for solving problems in the areas of system dynamics, control, and adaptive systems. In order to solve many of the problems of the 21st century, the utilization of Smart Materials, Active and Intelligent Control, and Advanced Sensing techniques will be employed. A second and equally important thrust of this program lies in the creation of generations of respected engineers with both an experimental and theoretical understanding.

What is a Smart Structure?

Above, at left: (L-R) Farzad Ahmadkhanlou, doctoral student in mechanical engineering, and professors Stephen Bechtel and Greg Washington examine a manipulator device as interaction occurs with a small scale robot. At Right: A manipulator prototype, similar to the manipulator a surgeon would use in an operation room, has been used in current research at the Intelligent Structures and Systems Laboratory.

At left: (L-R) Farzad Ahmadkhanlou, doctoral student in mechanical engineering, and professors Stephen Bechtel and Greg Washington examine a manipulator device as interaction occurs with a small scale robot. At Right: A manipulator prototype, similar to the manipulator a surgeon would use in an operation room, has been used in current research at the Intelligent Structures and Systems Laboratory.

There are many definitions for smart structures. In the structural mechanics world a smart structure involves actuators, sensors, and microprocessors. The microprocessors analyze the responses from the sensors and use centralized or decentralized control to command the actuators to respond accordingly. A smart structure has the capability to respond to a changing external environment (such as loads and shape change) as well as to a changing internal environment (such as damage or failure).

Normally a smart structure contains one or more active or smart materials. It is the use of these materials that cause the whole structure to be classified as "smart". These materials have the ability to change their shape, rheological properties (like stiffness and damping), or to change their internal electrical properties like dielectric constant or resistivity. There are many types of smart materials being developed, and implemented in both industry and academe. The typical materials include piezoelectric materials, shape memory alloys, electrostrictive materials, magnetostrictive materials, electro-rheological fluids and fiber optics. These can be integrated with main load-carrying structures by surface bonding or embedding the components in these structures.