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[Researchers] have developed an active variable stiffness vibration isolator capable of 100x stiffness changes and millisecond actuation times, independent of the static load. According to Principal Investigator Christopher Churchill, "This performance surpasses existing mechanisms by at least 20 times in either speed or useful stiffness change."

Churchill says that the traditional approach - building a soft system and then adding damping and force - is expensive and low-bandwidth. "We developed a new paradigm, and instead built a stiff system and then softened it," he said. The result is a low-cost and high-bandwidth solution to long-standing challenges.