Related papers: Novel design strategies for modulating conductive …
We use elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane substrates to strain single-walled carbon nanotubes and modulate their electronic properties, with the aim of developing flexible materials that can sense local strain. We demonstrate micron-scale…
Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are a type of multifunctional materials with salient features that are very attractive in developing soft, lightweight, and small-scale transducers and robotics. This paper reviews the mechanics of soft DE…
We investigate the possibility of a striped inhomoegenous phase occurring as an electronic system with an order parameter linearly coupled to the elastic degrees of freedom is tuned through the electronic phase transition. We find that in…
The safety and accuracy of robotic navigation hold paramount importance, especially in the realm of soft continuum robotics, where the limitations of traditional rigid sensors become evident. Encoders, piezoresistive, and potentiometer…
The emissivity of common materials remains constant with temperature variations, and cannot drastically change. However, it is possible to design its entire behaviour as a function of temperature, and to significantly modify the thermal…
We investigate the mechanics of bistable, hard-magnetic, elastic beams, combining experiments, finite element modeling (FEM), and a reduced-order theory. The beam is made of a hard magneto-rheological elastomer, comprising two segments with…
We describe opportunities and challenges with wireless robotic materials. Robotic materials are multi-functional composites that tightly integrate sensing, actuation, computation and communication to create smart composites that can sense…
Confined thin structures are ubiquitous in nature. Spatial and length constraints have led to a number of novel packing strategies at both the micro-scale, as when DNA packages inside a capsid, and the macro-scale, seen in plant root…
We develop a method to design tunable quasiperiodic structures of particles suspended in a fluid by controlling standing acoustic waves. One application of our results is to ultrasound directed self-assembly, which allows fabricating…
This paper proposes a computational framework for the design optimization of stable structures under large deformations by incorporating nonlinear buckling constraints. A novel strategy for suppressing spurious buckling modes related to…
In this work we continue the investigation of different approaches to conception and modeling of composite materials. The global method we focus on, is called 'stochastic homogenization'. In this approach, the classical deterministic…
Particle based methods such as the Discrete Element Method and the Lattice Spring Method may be used for describing the behaviour of isotropic linear elastic materials. However, the common bond models employed to describe the interaction…
Electroadhesive clutches are electrically controllable switchable adhesives commonly used in soft robots and haptic user interfaces. They can form strong bonds to a wide variety of surfaces at low power consumption. However, electroadhesive…
Many biological systems can form strong adhesion to various materials with complex shapes. The adhesion is further switchable between strongly adhering and completely non-adhering in a simple and fast manner. By contrast, no engineering…
We create mechanical metamaterials whose response to uniaxial compression can be programmed by lateral confinement, allowing monotonic, non-monotonic and hysteretic behavior. These functionalities arise from a broken rotational symmetry…
Soft robots have been leveraged in considerable areas like surgery, rehabilitation, and bionics due to their softness, flexibility, and safety. However, it is challenging to produce two same soft robots even with the same mold and…
This study addresses the modelling of elastic bodies, particularly when the relaxed configuration is unknown or non-existent. We adopt the theory of initially stressed materials, incorporating the deformation gradient and stress state of…
The design of adaptive structures is one method to improve sustainability of buildings. Adaptive structures are able to adapt to different loading and environmental conditions or to changing requirements by either small or large shape…
Soft materials have many important roles in animal locomotion and object manipulation. In robotic applications soft materials can store and release energy, absorb impacts, increase compliance and increase the range of possible shape…
This article reviews recent inverse statistical-mechanical methodologies that we have devised to optimize interaction potentials in soft matter systems that correspond to stable "target" structures. We are interested in finding the…