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Conventional stress monitoring relies on episodic, symptom-focused interventions, missing the need for continuous, accessible, and cost-efficient solutions. State-of-the-art approaches use rigid, silicon-based wearables, which, though…
Precise manipulation of shape-morphing responsive materials is crucial for applications in soft robotics and adaptive structures. While notable precision has been achieved in thin two-dimensional sheets, an accurate volumetric…
Soft robotic systems have gained widespread attention due to their inherent flexibility, adaptability, and safety, making them well-suited for varied applications. Among bioinspired designs, earthworm locomotion has been extensively studied…
Soft elastic composite materials containing particulate rigid inclusions in a soft elastic matrix are candidates for developing soft actuators or tunable damping devices. The possibility to reversibly drive the rigid inclusions within such…
There is increasing interest in materials that combine energy-storing functions with augmented mechanical properties, ranging from flexibility in bending to stretchability to structural properties. In the case of lithium-ion batteries,…
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are rubber-like solids that incorporate nematic mesogens (stiff rod-like molecules) as a part of their polymer chains. In recent years, isotropic-genesis, polydomain liquid crystal elastomers (I-PLCEs) has…
The optical and acoustic metagratings have addressed the limitations of low-efficiency wave manipulation and high-complexity fabrication of metamaterials and metasurfaces. In this research, we introduce the concept of elastic metagrating…
The aim of this paper is to deal with multi-physics simulation of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) based on an advanced numerical methodology. MEMS are very small devices in which electric as well as mechanical and fluid phenomena…
Tunable optical devices, in particular, varifocal lenses, have important applications in various fields, including imaging and adaptive vision. Recent advances in metasurfaces, which control the wavefront of light using subwavelength-spaced…
Self-shaping of curved structures, especially those involving flexible thin layers, has attracted increasing attention because of their broad potential applications in e.g. nanoelectromechanical/micro-electromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS),…
Magnetic elastomers deform under a magnetic field, working as a soft actuator. Untethered microbot made of magnetic elastomers have great potentials in performing medical tasks inside human body as mini doctors. However, the lack of a…
Metamaterials offer a powerful way to manipulate a variety of physical fields ranging from wave fields (electromagnetic field, acoustic field, elastic wave, etc.), static fields (static magnetic field, static electric field) to diffusive…
Conjugated polymer fibers can be used to manufacture various soft fibrous optoelectronic devices, significantly advancing wearable devices and smart textiles. Recently, conjugated polymer-based fibrous electronic devices have been widely…
Two-dimensional materials (2DM) and their derived heterostructures have electrical and optical properties that are widely tunable via several approaches, most notably electrostatic gating and interfacial engineering such as twisting. While…
Flexible electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an emerging technology for tactile sensing in human-machine interfaces (HMI). It offers a unique alternative to traditional array-based tactile sensors with its flexible, scalable, and…
Multi-stable mechanical structures find cutting-edge applications across various domains due to their reconfigurability, which offers innovative possibilities for engineering and technology advancements. This study explores the emergence of…
We present an open-source untethered quadrupedal soft robot platform for dynamic locomotion (e.g., high-speed running and backflipping). The robot is mostly soft (80 vol.%) while driven by four geared servo motors. The robot's soft body and…
Embedding magnetic colloidal particles in an elastic polymer matrix leads to smart soft materials that can reversibly be addressed from outside by external magnetic fields. We discover a pronounced nonlinear superelastic stress-strain…
Exceptionally large strains can be produced in soft elastomers by the application of an electric field and the strains can be exploited for a variety of novel actuators, such as tunable lenses and tactile actuators. However, shape morphing…
Thin dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) features a unique in-plane configuration, enabling low-profile designs capable of accessing millimetre-scale narrow spaces. However, most existing DEA-powered soft robots require high voltages and…