RECENT RESEARCH ON INTELLIGENT MATERIALS

Intelligent materials are the materials possessing functions in themse lves such as the sensing function which detects the environmental chan ge or their inner anomaly, the processor function which can judge the situation to lead the conclusion, and the actuating function which act ivates the materials within themselves to take action or give instruct ion. The structural and functional materials simply utilize the native properties and functions of their own. On the other hand, the intelli gent materials are based on a new concept where the information scienc e will be united with their own properties and functions. The intellig ent materials are very important and useful in many fields and the int erdisciplinary fields such as the medicine, pharmacy, bioengineering, polymer, metallurgy, semiconductor, ceramics, electronics, and machine ry. It is also an extremely important material in human engineering, s afety engineering, environmental research, and for study of the resour ces. In this report, the category of the intelligent material and the recent activities of research on the intelligent materials are discuss ed.