SPARTAN: Space Armor Technology using AI and Nature – bio-inspired structures for ultra strong, lightweight, low-density armoring
Scientists and engineers have long found inspiration in nature’s three-dimensional patterns, and many of these structures are found in living things, like plant leaves, corals, and butterfly wings. Natural biological structures like these can provide incredible strength, rigidity, and load bearing properties while remaining ultra light weight.
Nature’s designs are inspiring new approaches to additive manufacturing; generating complex, light, low-density structures with extreme durability. Combining artificial intelligence with bio-mimicking design, Oceanit is developing SPARTAN: Space Armor Technology using AI and Nature, a novel class of AI-driven structural designs, to be applied in various fields such as defense and aerospace engineering, to make spacecraft and satellites lighter and stronger.
One of nature’s blueprints for ultra-lightweight, low-density structures is known as the ‘gyroid’ structure. While gyroids are a continuous network of interwoven helicoidal channels that form a “triply periodic” minimal surface, SPARTAN is Oceanit’s class of not only gyroidal designs, but other nature-inspired structure patterns that deliver incredible mechanical properties while minimizing weight.
SPARTAN structures have incredibly high strength-to-weight ratios, excellent energy absorption capacity, and exceptional resistance to impact and fracture. Different designs are being developed for use in exoskeletons and armor, and to reinforce or protect aircraft, satellites, spacecraft, and more.
SPARTAN structures have several unique features that make them ideal for aerospace applications. Continuous networks of interwoven channels provide an excellent balance between strength and weight that can distribute loads over a large surface area, reducing the stress concentration at any particular point. The complex structures also provide variable levels of stiffness or rigidity, meaning they can either be highly resistant to deformation or extremely flexible. SPARTAN structures provide excellent energy absorption capacity, which makes them highly effective in absorbing the impact of external forces such as vibration, shock, and wind.
SPARTAN are manufactured using a variety of modern techniques, including 3D printing, casting, and laser sintering, and by using AI to support the design of these novel, nature-inspired structures, Oceanit is revolutionizing industries from transportation and energy, to aerospace and critical infrastructure.