Motion Granted: Everyday Items Get Smart

To turn a home into a smart home, a person might buy some Wi-Fi-connected light bulbs, speakers, cameras, and door locks, then set up some type of user interface to interact with these devices. This might be a smartphone app provided by the device manufacturer, or it could be an open-source platform like Home Assistant. But in either case, the basic idea is the same. These interfaces all provide a centralized control system that is distinct and physically disconnected from the devices themselves.

A group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University thinks that separating the device from the interface is unnatural and inefficient, so they reimagined the user interface as something that can be embedded into the device itself. In particular, their system can give any ordinary item around your house (as long as it is fairly small) the ability to move on its own. This enables some interesting applications, like tools that can scurry toward their owner if they have been lost on a cluttered workbench, or potted plants that can seek shade in the heat of the day.

The system, called LayMo (Layered Motion), is designed as a thin, self-contained locomotion layer that can be attached to the underside of small, everyday objects. Once installed, this layer gives the object limited mobility, allowing it to move, rotate, or reposition itself across a flat surface. What makes LayMo unique is that it provides motion without wheels, rails, or external robots — everything happens within a few millimeters of thickness.

LayMo’s motion relies on two coordinated mechanisms: vibration for energy input and electrically controlled steering for directional control. The vibration comes from small linear resonant actuators, similar to those used in smartphones for haptic feedback, that shake the object against the surface it rests on. By itself, vibration would cause random movement. But LayMo adds precision through a second layer made of flat-foldable compliant structures.

These structures are made from liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), an active material that contracts when heated. When electricity flows through embedded film heaters, the LCEs heat up and bend, folding small leg-like structures outward. These legs create areas of differential friction — low friction in one direction, high in the opposite — which determines how the object moves. By selectively activating different sets of legs, the system can steer forward, backward, sideways, or rotate in place.

Each LayMo module includes a microcontroller, heater, thermistor, and vibration motor, all integrated into a flexible printed circuit board. This modular design allows for scalability; multiple modules can be tiled together to move larger or heavier objects, up to about 1.2 kilograms in the team’s tests.

By combining these layers, it is possible to create an object that can physically collaborate with its user. Imagine a ruler that slides across a desk to demonstrate a measurement, or a paint palette that moves closer when the artist reaches for it. The team envisions manufacturers eventually embedding such motion layers directly into products during assembly, creating a new class of dynamic physical interfaces. Whether or not consumers will be excited about all of these things scurrying around their homes remains to be seen.