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Lattice structures have been widely used in various applications of additive manufacturing due to its superior physical properties. If modeled by triangular meshes, a lattice structure with huge number of struts would consume massive…
We investigate how material rigidity acts as a key control parameter for the failure of solids under stress. In both experiments and simulations, we demonstrate that material failure can be continuously tuned by varying the underlying…
We propose a mechanically simple and cheap design for a series elastic actuator with controllable stiffness. Such characteristics are necessary for animals for running, jumping, throwing, and manipulation, yet in robots, variable stiffness…
Dynamic manipulation of flexible objects such as fabric, which is difficult to modelize, is one of the major challenges in robotics. With the development of deep learning, we are beginning to see results in simulations and in some actual…
External fields can decidedly alter the free energy landscape of soft materials and can be exploited as a powerful tool for the assembly of targeted nanostructures and colloidal materials. Here, we use computer simulations to demonstrate…
With the aim of understanding failure modes in the peeling of silicone-based adhesive joints and, in particular, the occurrence of adhesive or cohesive failure, an experimental campaign has been conducted by considering plastic substrates…
This paper deals with shape optimization for elastic materials under stochastic loads. It transfers the paradigm of stochastic dominance, which allows for flexible risk aversion via comparison with benchmark random variables, from…
Rapid prototyping is an emerging technology for the fast make of engineering components. A common technique is to laser cut a two-dimensional (2D) part from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) sheet. However, both manufacturing defects and…
Soft robots are compliant but often cannot support loads or hold their shape, while rigid robots provide structural strength but are less adaptable. Existing variable-stiffness systems usually operate at the scale of whole segments or…
Stroke-induced motor impairment often results in substantial loss of upper-limb function, creating a strong demand for rehabilitation robots that enable safe and transparent physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Variable stiffness…
We consider a theoretical model for membranes with adhesive receptors, or stickers, that are actively switched between two conformational states. In their 'on'-state, the stickers bind to ligands in an apposing membrane, whereas they do not…
Stable locomotion in precipitous environments is an essential task for quadruped robots, requiring the ability to resist various external disturbances. Recent neural policies enhance robustness against disturbances by learning to resist…
Although commonly associated with limbless animals like snakes and fish, multi-legged organisms like centipedes also utilize undulatory locomotion. Whether these undulations are actively reinforced or resisted by the axial musculature…
An important issue in additive manufacturing is the reliability and reproducibility of parts. One major problem in achieving this are uncontrolled local variations in the obtained material properties which arise in the complex manufacturing…
Mechanical metamaterials made of flexible building blocks can exhibit a plethora of extreme mechanical responses, such as negative elastic constants, shape-changes, programmability and memory. To date, dissipation has largely remained…
The paper focuses on stiffness matrix computation for manipulators with passive joints, compliant actuators and flexible links. It proposes both explicit analytical expressions and an efficient recursive procedure that are applicable in the…
A hydrostatically stressed soft elastic film circumvents the imposed constraint by undergoing a morphological instability, the wavelength of which is dictated by the minimization of the surface and the elastic strain energies of the film.…
We present a reinforcement learning framework for quadrupedal wall-climbing locomotion that explicitly addresses uncertainty in magnetic foot adhesion. A physics-based adhesion model of a quadrupedal magnetic climbing robot is incorporated…
The quest for wave channeling and manipulation has driven a strong research effort on topological and architected materials, capable of propagating localized electromagnetical or mechanical signals. With reference to an elastic structural…
Elastic structures can be designed to exhibit precise, complex, and exotic functions. While recent work has focused on the quasistatic limit governed by force balance, the mechanics at a finite driving rate are governed by Newton's…