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The iterative nature of topology optimization, especially in combination with nonlinear state problems, often requires the solution of thousands of linear equation systems. Furthermore, due to the pixelated design representation, the use of…

Many manipulation tasks pose a challenge since they depend on non-visual environmental information that can only be determined after sustained physical interaction has already begun. This is particularly relevant for effort-sensitive,…

A robotic platform for mobile manipulation needs to satisfy two contradicting requirements for many real-world applications: A compact base is required to navigate through cluttered indoor environments, while the support needs to be large…

Odd materials feature antisymmetric response to perturbations. This anomalous property can stem from the nonequilibrium activity of their components, which is sustained by an external energy supply. These materials open the door to…

Evolution in time-varying environments naturally leads to adaptable biological systems that can easily switch functionalities. Advances in the synthesis of environmentally-responsive materials therefore open up the possibility of creating a…

The recent decades have seen various attempts at accelerating the process of developing materials targeted towards specific applications. The performance required for a particular application leads to the choice of a particular material…

Non-linear dynamical systems represent a compact, flexible, and robust tool for reactive motion generation. The effectiveness of dynamical systems relies on their ability to accurately represent stable motions. Several approaches have been…

Inspired by natural cellular materials such as trabecular bone, lattice structures have been developed as a new type of lightweight material. In this paper we present a novel method to design lattice structures that conform with both the…

We study an extensive class of movement minimization problems which arise from many practical scenarios but so far have little theoretical study. In general, these problems involve planning the coordinated motion of a collection of agents…

Compliant mechanisms are alternatives to conventional mechanisms which exploit elastic strain to produce desired deformations instead of using moveable parts. They are designed for a kinematic task (providing desired deformations) but do…

In topology optimization of compliant mechanisms, the specific placement of boundary conditions strongly affects the resulting material distribution and performance of the design. At the same time, the most effective locations of the loads…

This paper presents a density-based topology optimization method for designing three-dimensional (3D) compliant mechanisms and loadbearing structures with design-dependent pressure loading. Instead of interface-tracking techniques, the…

Optimization under structural constraints is typically analyzed through projection or penalty methods, obscuring the geometric mechanism by which constraints shape admissible dynamics. We propose an operator-theoretic formulation in which…

This paper proposes a variational approach to describe the evolution of organization of complex systems from first principles, as increased efficiency of physical action. Most simply stated, physical action is the product of the energy and…

With a loose reference to problems of penetration in biomechanics (for instance, a nanoparticle penetrating through a cell's membrane or a cell sucked with a pipette), the role of configurational forces is investigated during the process in…

This article offers a new perspective for the mechanics of solids using moving Cartan's frame, specifically discussing a mixed variational principle in non-linear elasticity. We treat quantities defined on the co-tangent bundles of…

The elastic behavior of materials operating in the linear regime is constrained, by definition, to operations that are linear in the imposed deformation. Though the nonlinear regime holds promise for new functionality, the design in this…

Complex motions for robots are frequently generated by switching among a collection of individual movement primitives. We use this approach to formulate robot motion plans as sequences of primitives to be executed one after the other. When…

Soft electronics have recently gathered considerable interest thanks to their bio-mechanical compatibility. An important feature of such deformable conductors is their electrical response to strain. While development of stretchable…

An application design is offered, which students of physics can use when authoring a solver for mechanical systems with constraints. A 'chainlist' concept is introduced to capture a constrained mechanical system configuration and to pass…