Related papers: Three-dimensional transformable modular kirigami b…

Existing Civil Engineering structures have limited capability to adapt their configurations for new functions, non-stationary environments, or future reuse. Although origami principles provide capabilities of dense packaging and…

Kirigami, the creative art of paper cutting, is a promising paradigm for mechanical metamaterials. However, to make kirigami-inspired structures a reality requires controlling the topology of kirigami to achieve connectivity and rigidity.…

Kirigami-inspired metamaterials are attracting increasing interest because of their ability to achieve extremely large strains and shape changes via out-of-plane buckling. While in flat kirigami sheets the ligaments buckle simultaneously as…

Shape-morphing finds widespread utility, from the deployment of small stents and large solar sails to actuation and propulsion in soft robotics. Origami structures provide a template for shape-morphing, but rules for designing and folding…

Combinatorial mechanical metamaterials feature spatially textured soft modes that yield exotic and useful mechanical properties. While a single soft mode often can be rationally designed by following a set of tiling rules for the building…

In this paper, we introduce a novel design paradigm for modular architectured materials that allows for spatially nonuniform designs from a handful of building blocks, which can be robotically assembled for efficient and scalable…

The nonlinear mechanical response of soft materials and slender structures is purposefully harnessed to program functions by design in soft robotic actuators, such as sequencing, amplified response, fast energy release, etc. However,…

Legged machines are becoming increasingly agile and adaptive but they have so far lacked the morphological diversity of legged animals, which have been rearranged and reshaped to fill millions of niches. Unlike their biological…

Controlling the connectivity and rigidity of kirigami, i.e. the process of cutting paper to deploy it into an articulated system, is critical in the manifestations of kirigami in art, science and technology, as it provides the resulting…

The ability to control resonant properties of individual metamolecule in a metamaterial structure will offer an ultimate freedom for dynamically shaping wavefronts of electromagnetic radiation for applications such as variable aberration…

Origami, which transforms flat sheets into three-dimensional shapes through folding patterns, has inspired the emergence of deployable systems in architecture and civil realms. Most existing origami-inspired deployable systems are based on…

Mechanical metamaterials have continued to offer unprecedented tunability in mechanical properties, but most designs to date have prioritized attaining high stiffness and strength while sacrificing deformability. The emergence of woven…

Lattices and their underlying symmetries play a central role in determining the physical properties and applications of many natural and engineered materials. By bridging the lattice geometry and rigid-folding kinematics, this study…

Nematic elastomers dramatically change their shape in response to diverse stimuli including light and heat. In this paper, we provide a systematic framework for the design of complex three dimensional shapes through the actuation of…

Deployable structures, essential across various engineering applications ranging from umbrellas to satellites, are evolving to include soft, morphable designs where geometry drives transformation. However, a major challenge for soft…

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…

Multi-step pathways, constituted of a sequence of reconfigurations, are central to a wide variety of natural and man-made systems. Such pathways autonomously execute in self-guided processes such as protein folding and self-assembly, but…

Mechanism - collections of rigid elements coupled by perfect hinges which exhibit a zero-energy motion -- motivate the design of a variety of mechanical metamaterials. We significantly enlarge this design space by considering…

Materials that are lightweight yet exhibit superior mechanical properties are of compelling importance for several technological applications that range from aircrafts to household appliances. Lightweight materials allow energy saving and…

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…