Intelligent Matter – An Introduction

S S Singh

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 AIM

Basics of intelligent matters and their future prospects

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 CONTENT
• Introduction
• Intelligent System
• Swarm based materials
• Soft-matter implementations
• Solid-state matter implementations
• Challenges
• Conclusion

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 INTRODUCTION
• Artificial Intelligence – Computer systems able to
perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence,
such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-
making and translation between languages
• Mimic parallelism of brain
• Nature inspired approach for information processing
• Advanced matter – learn and process information in
delocalized manner.

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 INTRODUCTION

• Intelligence - Intelligence is the ability to learn from

experience, comprehend complex situations, make
choices, adapt, and act purposefully

• Two main traits –

 Ability to learn
 Capacity to adapt to an environment

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 INTELLIGENT SYSTEM
• Inspired by nature – Bottom up approach

• Key functional elements –

 Sensors: To interact with the environment and
receive input & feedback
 Actuators: To respond to the input signal and adapt
the material’s properties
 Memory: For long-term storage of information
 Communication Network: For information transfer

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 INTELLIGENT SYSTEM
• Using different functional elements and based on the
complexity

• Categories of Matter –
 Static Structures
 Responsive Matter
 Adaptive Matter
 Intelligent Matter
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 STATIC STRUCTURE
• Without any functional elements

• Can be highly complex wide range

of functions

• Static: cannot change its

properties after synthesis

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 RESPONSIVE MATTER
• Two functional elements

• In response to external stimuli

changes its properties

• Response result is always same for

specific inputs

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 ADAPTIVE MATTER
• Three functional elements

• Can process internal feedback

• Regulates change of its properties

in response to different
environments and stimuli

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 INTELLIGENT MATTER
• All four functional elements

• Interacts with its environment

• Learns from the inputs it receives

• Self-regulates its action

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 EXAMPLES OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS

EXAMPLES CATEGORIES

Swarm based materials Static Structures

Soft-matter implementations Responsive Matter

Solid-state matter implementations Adaptive Matter

Intelligent Matter

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 SWARM BASED MATERIALS

• Multiple individually responsive entities can self-

organize which results in large-scale adaptive
phenomena

• Actions of the individual agents are coordinated in a

decentralized manner

• Examples – Insect colonies and flock of birds

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SWARM BASED - NANOPARTICLE ASSEMBLIES
• Programmed oscillating magnetic fields –
 Used to arrange paramagnetic nanoparticles into a ribbon-like
dynamic micro-swarm
Can perform –
 Reversible anisotropic deformation
 Controlled splitting and merging
 High Pattern stability
Adaptive Matter – No memory
 Navigated locomotion

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SWARM BASED - NANOPARTICLE ASSEMBLIES
• Colloidal particles –
 Exhibit self-organization properties
 Form 2D ‘living crystals’ when illuminated by blue light
 Swarm performs negative or positive phototactic motions
depending on the light intensity to which it is exposed
Adaptive Matter – No memory

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 SOFT-MATTER IMPLEMENTATIONS
• Natural Skin exhibits properties of basic intelligence –
 Tactile sensation of force, pressure, shape, texture and
temperature
 Haptic memory and capability of self-healing
• Soft robotics aims to translate these properties into soft-
matter implementations
• Soft robot capabilities –
 Emulate biological motion by adapting their shape & grip
 Risk of harm greatly reduced (in contact with humans)
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 RESPONSIVE SOFT-MATTER
• Artificial Muscle – consists of a silicone elastomer matrix
in which actuation relies on the liquid−vapour phase
transition of embedded ethanol micro-bubbles upon
heating
• Capable of repeatedly lifting a weight of more than 6 kg as
well as skeleton-arm motions and can be used in soft
grippers for lifting objects

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 RESPONSIVE SOFT-MATTER
• Artificial skin –Actively sense proximity, contact, pressure
and dampness of touched objects
• Doesn’t need an external power source and the skin
produces electricity in response

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 SOFT-MATTER WITH MEMORY
• Self-healing wearable – organic thin-film transistor
fabricated from a stretchable semiconducting polymer
that is operational even when folded, twisted and stretched
on a moving human limb
• It is capable of self-healing without external intervention
• A self-healing ability greatlyNo
Not Intelligent– improves
network the durability of the
material and eliminates the need for costly overdesigning

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SOLID-STATE MATTER IMPLEMENTATIONS
• Advanced Computing – Instead of using symbolic notion
of computation, matter itself can be for computing
• Bottom-up approaches exploiting nanomaterials may
provide pathways towards unconventional, efficient
computation
• Programmable and highly interconnected networks are
required to carrying out these tasks and brain-inspired or
neuromorphic hardware can provide physical realizations

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SOLID-STATE NEUROMORPHIC MATERIALS
• For brain-inspired neuromorphic hardware, phase-change
materials can be used to make artificial neurons and synapses in
artificial neural networks
• These are programmable in either an amorphous or a crystalline
state via Joule heating and this property is used to make fast,
accessible, room-temperature, non-volatile memory devices
• Photonic devices - a high-power-density light pulse is used to
adjust the degree of crystallinity, which changes the absorption
of light in the material
Not Intelligent– No long-term memory
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 CHALLENGES
• Development of effective methods for fabrication,
upscaling and control of intelligent matter
• Inclusion of conformational freedom, mobility and
exchange of nanoscale components
• Embedding feedback loop and long-term memory
• Compatibility between various intelligent matters

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 CONCLUSION
• None of the examples discussed here exhibits intelligence
• First – Development of adaptive matter with inherent feedback
• Second – Development adaptive matter with learning capability
• Third – Development of intelligent matter, which receives input
from the environment via sensory interfaces, shows a desired
response encoded via embedded memory and artificial
networks, and can respond to external stimuli
• This will require a concerted, interdisciplinary and long-term
research effort

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 REFERENCES

• The rise of intelligent matter – by C. Kaspar et. al.

• Intelligent Materials – by Kai Liu et. al.

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