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The design of desired behaviors in mechanical metamaterials has produced remarkable advances but has generally neglected two aspects - the inevitable presence of undesired behaviors and the role of dynamics in avoiding such behaviors.…
Reconfigurable metamaterials are constructed from tessellation of deformable modules that give rise to a set of tuneable properties. To date, most research focuses on metamaterials that morph between final configurations along a single…
Mechanical metamaterials are periodic lattice structures with complex unit cell architectures that can achieve extraordinary mechanical properties beyond the capability of bulk materials. A new class of metamaterials is proposed, whose…
Metamaterials with floppy modes called mechanisms are a burgeoning template for shape-morphing systems and structures across scales. Here, we present a design recipe that transforms an arbitrary plane tiling into a 2D kirigami pattern with…
Mechanical metamaterials leverage geometric design to achieve unconventional properties, such as high strength at low density, efficient wave guiding, and complex shape morphing. The ability to control shape changes builds on the complex…
The ability to change a surface's profile allows biological systems to effectively manipulate and blend into their surroundings. Current surface morphing techniques rely either on having a small number of fixed states or on directly driving…
Learning to change shape is a fundamental strategy of adaptation and evolution of living organisms, from bacteria and cells to tissues and animals. Human-made materials can also exhibit advanced shape morphing capabilities, but lack the…
From the complex motions of robots to the oxygen binding of hemoglobin, the function of many mechanical systems depends on large, coordinated movements of their components. Such movements arise from a network of physical interactions in the…
Harnessing the rich nonlinear dynamics of highly-deformable materials has the potential to unlock the next generation of functional smart materials and devices. However, unlocking such potential requires effective strategies to spatially…
Machines enabled the Industrial Revolution and are central to modern technological progress: A machine's parts transmit forces, motion, and energy to one another in a predetermined manner. Today's engineering frontier, building artificial…
Variable stiffness is a key capability in biological and robotic systems, enabling adaptive interaction across tasks and environments. Mechanical metamaterials offer an alternative to conventional mechatronic solutions by encoding stiffness…
Self-assembly processes provide the means to achieve scalable and versatile metamaterials by "bottom-up" fabrication. Despite their enormous potential, especially as a platform for energy materials, self-assembled metamaterials are often…
Within a decade of fruitful developments, metamaterials became a prominent area of research, bridging theoretical and applied electrodynamics, electrical engineering and material science. Being man-made structures, metamaterials offer a…
The recent development of modular origami structures has ushered in a new era for active metamaterials with multiple degrees of freedom (multi-DOF). Notably, no systematic inverse design approach for volumetric modular origami structures…
Shape-morphing capabilities are crucial for enabling multifunctionality in both biological and artificial systems. Various strategies for shape morphing have been proposed for applications in metamaterials and robotics. However, few of…
Cells and microorganisms employ dynamic shape changes to enable steering and avoidance for efficient spatial exploration and collective organization. In contrast, active colloids, their synthetic counterparts, currently lack similar…
Reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials, composed of a lattice of discretely adaptive elements, are emerging as a promising platform for mechanical intelligence. To operate in unknown environments, such structures must go beyond passive…
In nature, materials such as ferroelastics and multiferroics can switch their microstructure in response to external stimuli, and this reconfiguration causes a simultaneous modulation of its material properties. Rapid prototyping…
Traditional robotic mechanisms contain a series of rigid links connected by rotational joints that provide powered motion, all of which is controlled by a central processor. By contrast, analogous mechanisms found in nature, such as octopus…
Multishape metamaterials exhibit more than one target shape change, e.g. the same metamaterial can have either a positive or negative Poisson's ratio. So far, multishape metamaterials have mostly been obtained by trial-and-error. The…