A collaborative research article with our lab members Dr. Morikawa, Takumi Nakamura, and Yoshihiko Matsumoto, together with Dr. Matsuda (Kyushu Univ.), Dr. Akiyama (Univ. of Toyama), Prof. Yamasaki (Waseda Univ.), and Prof. Kondo (NIG), has been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Inspired by “differential growth” in biology—the principle by which tissues transform flat sheets into three-dimensional shapes through spatially varying growth rates—this study proposes a method to artificially generate diverse curved surface structures. Non-shrinking resin pieces, designed via conformal mapping, are 3D-printed onto a heat-shrink film to encode the growth blueprint. By further combining the structure with a UV-curing resin coating, in analogy to the layered formation of insect exoskeletons, the team achieved approximately a 166-fold increase in structural stiffness. The results demonstrate how biological morphogenesis principles can be harnessed for new manufacturing and materials engineering applications.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2025.1094
The research is also featured in the Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering research topics page (in Japanese).