Related papers: Stimuli-responsive twist actuators made from soft …
By performing dynamic Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the microrheology of isotropic suspensions of hard-core colloidal cuboids. In particular, we infer the local viscoelastic behaviour of these fluids by studying the dynamics of a…
Most tactile actuators create tactile sensations through vibrations or the mechanical and electrochemical formation of bumps. However, tactile sensations of real objects arise from friction which is derived not only from physical…
Thermo-responsive hydrogels are a promising material for creating controllable actuators for use in micro-scale devices, since they expand and contract significantly (absorbing or expelling fluid) in response to relatively small temperature…
Thin elastic sheets bend easily and, if they are patterned with cuts, can deform in sophisticated ways. Here we show that carefully tuning the location and arrangement of cuts within thin sheets enables the design of mechanical actuators…
Stressed soft materials commonly present viscoelastic signatures in the form of power-law or exponential decay. Understanding the origins of such rheologic behaviors is crucial to find proper technological applications. Using an elastic…
Materials that respond to external stimuli by expanding or contracting provide a transduction route that integrates sensing and actuation powered directly by the stimuli. This motivates us to build colloidal scale robots using these…
The ability to tune the microstructures formed by block copolymers using accessible physical approaches provides control for practical material applications. A common strategy involves the addition of homopolymers, which can induce…
Spin excitations of magnetic thin films are the founding element for novel transport concepts in spintronics, magnonics, and magnetic devices in general. While spin dynamics have been extensively studied in bulk materials, their behaviour…
In this paper we study the switching properties of the dynamics of magnetic moments, that interact with an elastic medium. To do so we construct a Hamiltonian framework, that can take into account the dynamics in phase space of the…
Compliant environments can mediate interactions between mechanically active cells like fibroblasts. Starting with a phenomenological model for the behaviour of single cells, we use extensive Monte Carlo simulations to predict non-trivial…
We study the formation and dynamics of dipolar rings composed by microscopic ferromagnetic ellipsoids, which self-assemble in water by switching the direction of the applied field. We show how to manipulate these fragile structures and…
We report extensive numerical simulations of different models of 2D polymer rings with internal elasticity. We monitor the dynamical behavior of the rings as a function of the packing fraction, to address the effects of particle deformation…
Nowadays, magnetoresponsive soft materials, based not simply on magnetic nanoparticles, but rather on multiple components with distinct sizes and magnetic properties, both in liquid and polymeric carriers, are becoming more and more…
Liquid crystal elastomers represent a novel class of programmable shape-transforming materials whose shape change trajectory is encoded in the material's nematic director field. Using three-dimensional nonlinear finite element…
We introduce the concept of magnetoelastic metamaterials with electromagnetic properties depending on elastic deformation. We predict a strong nonlinear and bistable response of such metamaterials caused by their structural reshaping in…
Grasping, in both biological and engineered mechanisms, can be highly sensitive to the gripper and object morphology, as well as perception, and motion planning. Here we circumvent the need for feedback or precise planning by using an array…
Recent developments in the engineering of metamaterials have brought forth a myriad of mesmerizing mechanical properties that do not exist in ordinary solids. Among these, twisting metamaterials, acoustical chirality, or Willis coupling are…
This paper presents a contact-based micromanipulation system for the alignment and installment of microscale magnets into micro robots and devices. Affixing tweezers to a three degree of freedom micromanipulator allows for precise movement…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles that, when dispersed in a solvent, swell and deswell in response to changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature, concentration, and $p$H. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we model bulk…
Surface stress drives long-range elastocapillary interactions at the surface of compliant solids, where it has been observed to mediate interparticle interactions and to alter the transport of liquid drops. We show that such an…