SMART MATERIALS AND SMART SYSTEMS FOR THE FUTURE by Georges Akhras

roles of the Canadian Forces will continue to be to defend the country and its vital interests, and to participate actively in peacekeeping and peace restoration missions. To carry out these tasks in an appropriate and effective way, the Forces must keep abreast of technological advances and needs if they are to adopt and bring into service the best available ones. Moreover, effective collaboration with our allies, especially the Americans, will clearly demand the best in equipment and training. Last year, the Defence Research and Development Branch of DND published a document explaining the policies, opportunities and desired outcomes for the near future. 'Smart materials' and 'smart structures' are listed among the technological opportunities and the proposed Research and Development (R&D) activities of the future defence program. The race is on to explore, develop and exploit the newest products of smart technology , and this is needed to keep our Forces competitive with potential adversaries. So, what are 'smart systems'? DEFINITION mart systems trace their origin to a field of research that envisioned devices and materials that could mimic human muscular and nervous systems. The essential idea is to produce non-biological systems that will achieve the optimum functionality observed in biological systems through emulation of their adaptive capabilities and integrated design. By definition, smart materials and smart structures — and by extension smart systems — consist of systems with sensors and actuators that are either embedded in or attached to the system to form an integral part of it 1. The system and its related components form an entity that will act and react in a predicted manner, and ultimately behave in a pattern that emulates a biological function. The human body is the ideal or ultimate smart system. One of the first attempts to use the smart materials technology involved materials constructed to do the work of electromechanical devices. Since then, many types of sensors 2 and actuators 3 have been developed to measure or excite a system. This technology is still in its infancy and the scientific community is just beginning to scratch the surface of its potential. With a bit of imagination one can see enormous benefits to society. This paper presents a simple overview of the technology. After defining what is meant by 'smart materi-als', it describes a smart structure and its components, and provides a few examples. This is part of an ongoing work on …