Related papers: Soft kirigami composites for form-finding of fully…
Soft robots are inherently compliant and have a strong potential to realize human-friendly and safe robots. Despite continued research highlighting the potential of soft robots, they remain largely confined to laboratory settings. In this…
Origami structures have been widely explored in robotics due to their many potential advantages. Origami robots can be very compact, as well as cheap and efficient to produce. In particular, they can be constructed in a flat format using…
Reconfigurable robots that can change their physical configuration post-fabrication have demonstrate their potential in adapting to different environments or tasks. However, it is challenging to determine how to optimally adjust…
Materials designed by nature commonly exhibit functional grading and laminated structures, particularly when intended for enhanced impact protection. Synthetic materials have also found success in exploiting this concept with fully dense…
We propose a low-pretension reflective kirigami film as a material for the reflective surfaces of large deployable space reflector antennas with an operating frequency around 10 GHz. The kirigami cut pattern is based on the well-known…
Designing a robot or structure that can fold itself into a target shape is a process that involves challenges originated from multiple sources. For example, the designer of rigid self-folding robots must consider foldability from geometric…
Orthogonally assembled double-layered corrugated (OADLC) mechanisms are a class of foldable structures that harness origami-inspired methods to enhance the structural stiffness of resulting devices; these mechanisms have extensive…
Self-assembly of complex and functional materials remains a grand challenge in soft material science. Efficient assembly depends on a delicate balance between thermodynamic and kinetic effects, requiring fine-tuning affinities and…
While the grasping capability of robotic grippers has shown significant development, the ability to manipulate objects within the hand is still limited. One explanation for this limitation is the lack of controlled contact variation between…
Geometrical frustration induced anisotropy and inhomogeneity are explored to achieve unique properties of metamaterials that set them apart from conventional materials. According to Neumann's principle, to achieve anisotropic responses, the…
Despite extensive research on magnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions, a significant challenge remains in crafting nontrivial high-order skyrmionic textures with varying, or even tailor-made, topologies. We address this challenge, by focusing…
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…
Eating is a daily challenge for over 60 million adults with essential tremors and other mobility limitations. For these users, traditional utensils like forks or spoons are difficult to manipulate -- resulting in accidental spills and…
Traditionally, origami has been categorized into two groups according to their kinematics design: rigid and non-rigid origami. However, such categorization can be superficial, and rigid origami can obtain new mechanical properties by…
Atomically thin layered materials are systems with zero limit bulk-to-surface ratio. Their physical properties are determined by two-dimensionality and strongly affected by interfacing with other systems. Therefore, they represent an…
In this paper, we introduce a new approach for soft robot shape formation and morphing using approximate distance fields. The method uses concepts from constructive solid geometry, R-functions, to construct an approximate distance function…
Origami-inspired self-deployable structures offer lightweight, compact, and autonomous deployment capabilities, making them highly attractive for aerospace and defence applications, such as solar panels, antennas, and reflector systems.…
Thin sheets can be assembled into tubular origami structures that combine deployability with pronounced anisotropic stiffness, enabling applications ranging from robotics to deployable systems. However, most existing tubular origami designs…
The Japanese art of turning flat sheets into 3D intricate structures, origami, has inspired design of mechanical metamaterials. Mechanical metamaterials are artificially engineered materials with uncommon properties. Miura-ori is a…
Regrasping on fixtures is a promising approach to reduce pose uncertainty in robotic assembly, but conventional rigid fixtures lack adaptability and require dedicated designs for each part. To overcome this limitation, we propose a soft jig…