Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Deborah Bumgardner

Ryohei Tsuruta

Shardul S Panwar

Taewoo Nam

Umesh N Gandhi

Eric W Smith

Yufei Zhu

Rikin Gupta

An aircraft can include a wing. A morphing member can be operatively connected to the wing. The morphing member can include a base and a shape memory material member operatively connected to the base. The base can be made of a flexible material. When the shape memory material member is activated, a shape of the morphing member can change. As a result, one or more aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft can be changed. In some arrangements, the flexible material can be a fabric, and the shape memory material member can be a shape memory alloy wire.

Wing shape control

A valve includes a substrate, a shape-memory wire, a conductive polymer, and a current source. The substrate defines an opening therethrough and includes at least one flap selectively extendable across the opening. The shape-memory wire is coupled to the at least one flap. The conductive polymer is coupled to the at least one flap. The current source is coupled to the shape-memory wire and the conductive polymer, such that electrical current from the current source selectively energizes the shape-memory wire and the conductive polymer thereby moving the at least one flap between a closed position and an open position.

Valves and methods of operating valves

A body can be configured to be selectively morphable. The body can be at least partially hollow. The body can include a surface. A shape memory material member, such as a shape memory alloy wire, can extend along the surface. The shape memory material member can include a first region, a second region, and a central region located between the first region and the second region. The first and second regions of the shape memory material member can be constrained on the surface, such as by stitches. The central region of the shape memory material member can be unconstrained on the surface. When activated, the shape memory material member can contact, causing the body to bend in the central region due being constrained in the first and second regions. Thus, the body can be morphed into an activated configuration.

Morphable body with shape memory material members

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Garden City, MI, United States of America

Deborah Bumgardner