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Self-assembly in the laboratory can now yield `information-rich' nanostructures in which each component is of a distinct type and has a defined spatial position. Ensuring the thermodynamic stability of such structures requires…
Architected materials can achieve enhanced properties compared to their plain counterparts. Specific architecting serves as a powerful design lever to achieve targeted behavior without changing the base material. Thus, the connection…
Nowadays, additive manufacturing processes greatly simplify the production of openwork workpiece providing new opportunities for workpieces design. Based on Nature knowledge, a new bio-inspired workpiece structural optimization approach is…
The failure of mechanical metamaterials is a function of the interplay between the properties of the base material and the microstructural geometry. Stochastic failure properties of the base material and disordered microstructural…
While assistive robots have much potential to help older people with frailty-related needs, there are few in use. There is a gap between what is developed in laboratories and what would be viable in real-world contexts. Through a series of…
During the last decade, tensegrity systems have been the focus of numerous investigations exploring the possibility of adopting them for planetary landing and exploration applications. Early approaches mainly focused on locomotion aspects…
An optimization method for the design of multi-lattice structures satisfying local buckling constraints is proposed in this paper. First, the concept of free material optimization is introduced to find an optimal elastic tensor distribution…
States of self-stress, tensions and compressions of structural elements that result in zero net forces, play an important role in determining the load-bearing ability of structures ranging from bridges to metamaterials with tunable…
The complex physics and numerous failure modes of structural impact creates challenges when designing for impact resistance. While simple geometries of layered material are conventional, advances in 3D printing and additive manufacturing…
Manual material handling tasks have the potential to be highly unsafe from an ergonomic viewpoint. Safety inspections to monitor body postures can help mitigate ergonomic risks of material handling. However, the real effect of awkward…
Kinematic structure of an exoskeleton is the most fundamental block of its design and is determinant of many functional capabilities of it. Although numerous upper limb rehabilitation devices have been designed in the recent years, there is…
Robustness is key to engineering, automation, and science as a whole. However, the property of robustness is often underpinned by costly requirements such as over-provisioning, known uncertainty and predictive models, and known adversaries.…
Successful engineering requires environmentally adapted procedural and architectural approaches. While dealing with complicated issues has become an engineering standard mastering uncertainties in complex environment is still a major issue.…
Architecting mechanisms of damage in metamaterials by leveraging lattice topology and geometry poses a vital yet complex challenge, essential for engineering desirable mechanical responses. Of these metamaterials, Maxwell lattices, which…
The rapidly advancing fields of statistical modeling and machine learning have significantly enhanced data-driven design and optimization. This paper focuses on leveraging these design algorithms to optimize a medical walker, an integral…
Many biological and engineering materials have nonperiodic microstructures for which classical periodic homogenization results do not apply. Certain nonperiodic microstructures may be approximated by locally periodic microstructures for…
Biological springs can be used in nature for energy conservation and ultra-fast motion. The loading and unloading rates of elastic materials can play an important role in determining how the properties of these springs affect movements. We…
Engineered timber is pivotal to low-carbon construction, but moisture uptake during its service life can compromise structural reliability and impede reuse within a circular economy model. Despite growing interest, quantitative standards…
A new idea for reusing rockets, based on the Energia 2 launch vehicle, using deployable wings is proposed. A mission design is planned with an expected maximum altitude of 500 m. Following that systems engineering was used to manage the…
This paper presents an end-to-end framework for robust structure/control optimization of an industrial benchmark. When dealing with space structures, a reduction of the spacecraft mass is paramount to minimize the mission cost and maximize…