Related papers: Scalable 3D printing for topological mechanical me…
This paper presents a class of 3D single-scale isotropic materials with tunable stiffness and buckling strength obtained via topology optimization and subsequent shape optimization. Compared to stiffness-optimal closed-cell plate material,…
Torque and continuous rotation are fundamental methods of actuation and manipulation in rigid robots. Soft robot arms use soft materials and structures to mimic the passive compliance of biological arms that bend and extend. This use of…
Soft elastic filaments that can be stretched, bent and twisted exhibit a range of topologically and geometrically complex morphologies that include plectonemes, solenoids, knot-like and braid-like structures. We combine numerical…
We design two-dimensional (2D) mechanical metamaterials that may be deformed substantially at little or no energy cost. Examples of such deformable structures are assemblies of rigid isosceles triangles hinged in their corners on the…
Mechanical metamaterials actuators achieve pre-determined input--output operations exploiting architectural features encoded within a single 3D printed element, thus removing the need of assembling different structural components. Despite…
Amongst the various fascinating types of material behavior featured by magnetic gels and elastomers are magnetostrictive effects. That is, deformations in shape or changes in volume are induced from outside by external magnetic fields.…
Compression of soft bodies is central to biology, materials science, and robotics, yet existing contact theories break down at large deformations. Here, we develop a general framework for soft-body compression by extending the method of…
The emergence of metamaterial has provided an unprecedented ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves, especially in the terahertz band where there is a lack of natural response materials. However, most metamaterials are fixed single…
The rapid design and fabrication of soft robotic matter is of growing interest for shape morphing, actuation, and wearable devices. Here, we report a facile fabrication method for creating soft robotic materials with embedded pneumatics…
Metamaterials are constructed such that, for a narrow range of frequencies, the momentum density depends on the local displacement gradient, and the stress depends on the local velocity. In these models the momentum density generally…
Developable surfaces are commonly observed in various applications such as architecture, product design, manufacturing, mechanical materials, and data physicalization as well as in the development of tangible interaction and deformable…
When a thin sheet is crushed into a small three-dimensional volume, it invariably forms a structure with a low volume fraction but high resistance to further compression. Being a far-from-equilibrium process, forced crumpling is not…
Mechanical metamaterials are increasingly attracting interest in engineering applications due to their unique mechanical properties and lightweight nature. This study develops a novel sound-based representation to characterize the…
As soft robot design matures, researchers have converged to sophisticated design paradigms to enable the development of more suitable platforms. Two such paradigms are soft-rigid hybrid robots, which utilize rigid structural materials in…
Traditional robotic mechanisms contain a series of rigid links connected by rotational joints that provide powered motion, all of which is controlled by a central processor. By contrast, analogous mechanisms found in nature, such as octopus…
We study the lubrication of fluid-immersed soft interfaces and show that elastic deformation couples tangential and normal forces and thus generates lift. We consider materials that deform easily, due to either geometry (e.g. a shell) or…
Shells, i.e., objects made of a thin layer of material following a surface, are among the most common structures in use. They are highly efficient, in terms of material required to maintain strength, but also prone to deformation and…
One of the most significant breakthroughs in physics of the last decade has been the discovery that materials with non-trivial topological properties for electronic, electromagnetic, acoustic and mechanical responses can be designed and…
Topology optimization offers great opportunities to design permanent magnetic systems that have specific external field characteristics. Additive manufacturing of polymer bonded magnets with an end-user 3D printer can be used to manufacture…
We study an elasticity model for compressed protein monolayers or particle rafts at a liquid interface. Based on the microscopic view of hard-core particles with soft shells, a bead-spring model is formulated and analyzed in terms of…