From future use in home furnishings, to aerospace components, and even "robotic skin" applicable to soft bio-hybrid robotic devices.
The AM-IMATE project is currently in the advanced laboratory testing phase (TRL level 2-3) and explores the use of mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi) to create living, regenerative, multifunctional structural materials.
Individual assemblable modules are generated through advanced 3D printing techniques; the insertion of micro-electrodes into the structure allows researchers to monitor mechanical stress and, in the presence of cracks or damage, send impulses that prompt the living material to deposit new matter, thereby restoring the structure's integrity.
Various issues remain to be solved, but the vision of the future that this project gives us is truly promising.