Related papers: Kirigami Actuators
Interlayer sliding ferroelectricity has been discovered in a variety of 2D materials with superb features such as atomic thickness, fast response, and fatigue resistance. So far, research on this phenomenon has been limited to fundamental…
Instabilities in thin elastic sheets, such as wrinkles, are of broad interest both from a fundamental viewpoint and also because of their potential for engineering applications. Nematic liquid crystal elastomers offer a new form of control…
The interaction between cracks, as well as their propagation, in single-crystal aluminum is investigated at the atomic scale using the molecular dynamics method and the modified embedded atom method. The results demonstrated that the crack…
Robots built from soft materials can alter their shape and size in a particular profile. This shape-changing ability could be extremely helpful for rescue robots and those operating in unknown terrains and environments. In changing shape,…
By integrating the principles of kirigami cutting and data-driven modeling, this study aims to develop a personalized, rapid, and low-cost design and fabrication pipeline for creating body-conformable surfaces around the knee joint. The…
Soft slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems and can be observed at scales that range from the nanometric to the kilometric, from polymers to space tethers. We present a practical numerical approach to simulate…
This paper presents design, fabrication and control of a compliant 2D manipulator, a so called soft actuator. Our focus is on fiber-reinforced elastomer actuators driven by a constant pressure hydraulic supply and modulated on/off valves.…
The pattern development of multiple cracks in extremely anisotropic solids such as bilayer or multilayer two-dimensional (2D) crystals contains rich physics, which, however, remains largely unexplored. We studied crack interaction across…
Kirigami, an ancient paper cutting art, offers a promising strategy for 2D-to-3D shape morphing through cut-guided deformation. Existing kirigami designs for target 3D curved shapes rely on intricate cut patterns in thin sheets, making the…
Single-mode deformations of two-dimensional materials, such as the Miura-ori zig-zag fold, are important to the design of deployable structures because of their robustness; these usually require careful pre-patterning of the material. Here…
In the context of finite elasticity, we propose plate models describing the spontaneous bending of nematic elastomer thin films due to variations along the thickness of the nematic order parameters. Reduced energy functionals are deduced…
The ability to engineer complex three-dimensional shapes from planar sheets with precise, programmable control underpins emerging technologies in soft robotics, reconfigurable devices, and functional materials. Here, we present a…
Inflated-beam soft robots, such as tip-everting vine robots, can control curvature by contracting one beam side via pneumatic actuation. This work develops a general finite element modeling approach to characterize their bending. The model…
Commonly used linear and nonlinear constitutive material models in deformation simulation contain many simplifications and only cover a tiny part of possible material behavior. In this work we propose a framework for learning customized…
Active materials are capable of converting free energy into directional motion, giving rise to striking dynamical phenomena. Developing a general understanding of their structure in relation to the underlying non-equilibrium physics would…
Foldable robots have been an active area of robotics research due to their high volume-to-mass ratio, easy packability, and shape adaptability. For locomotion, previously developed foldable robots have either embedded linear actuators in,…
A new continuous model of shearable rod, subject to large elastic deformation, is derived from nonlinear homogenization of a one-dimensional periodic microstructured chain. As particular cases, the governing equations reduce to the Euler…
Creases are purposely introduced to thin structures for designing deployable origami, artistic geometries, and functional structures with tunable nonlinear mechanics. Modeling the mechanics of creased structures is challenging because…
We use numerical simulations to show how noninteracting hard particles binding to a deformable elastic shell may self-assemble into a variety of linear patterns. This is a result of the nontrivial elastic response to deformations of shells.…
If one folds a thin viscoelastic sheet under an applied force, a line of plastic deformation is formed which shapes the sheet into an angle. We determine the parameters that define this angle experimentally and show that, no matter how much…