Related papers: A smart granular intruder
Under partial wetting conditions, making a substrate uniformly rougher enhances the wetting characteristics of the corresponding smooth substrate {--} hydrophilic systems become even more hydrophilic and hydrophobic systems even more…
There is growing interest in engineering unconventional computing devices that leverage the intrinsic dynamics of physical substrates to perform fast and energy-efficient computations. Granular metamaterials are one such substrate that has…
Nonlinear topology is an emerging field that combines the intrinsic reconfigurability of nonlinear systems with the robustness of topological protection, offering fertile ground for unconventional phenomena and novel applications. Recently,…
Effectively rearranging heterogeneous objects constitutes a high-utility skill that an intelligent robot should master. Whereas significant work has been devoted to the grasp synthesis of heterogeneous objects, little attention has been…
We propose and demonstrate a generative deep learning approach for the shape recognition of an arbitrary object from its acoustic scattering properties. The strategy exploits deep neural networks to learn the mapping between the latent…
I investigate the scattering properties of transformation devices as the traditional impedance matching criteria are altered. This is demonstrated using simple theory and augmented by numerical simulations that investigate the role of…
Active systems are driven out of equilibrium by exchanging energy and momentum with their environment. This endows them with anomalous mechanical properties that we review in this colloquium for the case of dry scalar active matter, which…
A folded disk is bistable, as it can be popped through to an inverted state with elastic energy localized in a small, highly-deformed region on the fold. Cutting out this singularity relaxes the surrounding material and leads to a loss of…
Granular intrusions, such as dynamic impact or wheel locomotion, are complex multiphase phenomena where the grains exhibit solid-like and fluid-like characteristics together with an ejected gas-like phase. Despite decades of modeling…
From the perspective of physical properties, the cell membrane is an exotic two-dimensional material that has a dual nature: it exhibits characteristics of fluids, i.e., lipid molecules show lateral diffusion, while also demonstrating…
Object detectors achieve strong performance under nominal imaging conditions but can fail silently when exposed to blur, noise, compression, adverse weather, or resolution changes. In safety-critical settings, it is therefore insufficient…
Recognizing objects in dense clutter accurately plays an important role to a wide variety of robotic manipulation tasks including grasping, packing, rearranging and many others. However, conventional visual recognition models usually miss…
In the realm of functional materials, the production of two-dimensional structures with tuneable porosity is of paramount relevance for many practical applications: surfaces with regular arrays of pores can be used for selective adsorption…
The collapse of an inclined cohesive granular layer triggered by a certain perturbation can be a model for not only landslides on Earth but also relaxations of asteroidal surface terrains. To understand such terrain dynamics, we conduct a…
When a flat elastic strip is compressed along its axis, it is bent in one of two possible directions via spontaneous symmetry breaking and forms a cylindrical arc, a phenomenon well known as Euler buckling. When this cylindrical section is…
We report a surface instability observed during the extrusion of extremely soft elastic solids in confined geometries. Due to their unique rheological properties, these soft solids can migrate through narrow gaps by continuously everting…
When granular mixtures of different sizes are fluidized, each species spontaneously separates and condenses to form patterns. Although granular segregation has been extensively studied, the inability to directly observe the time evolution…
We analyze the probability density distribution in a topological insulator slab of finite thickness, where the bulk and surface states are allowed to hybridize. By using an effective continuum Hamiltonian approach as a theoretical…
The work considers the design of an indirect adaptive controller for a satellite equipped with a robotic arm manipulating an object. Uncertainty on the manipulated object can considerably impact the overall behavior of the system. In…
Micron-sized particles moving through solution in response to self-generated chemical gradients serve as model systems for studying active matter. Their far-reaching potential applications will require the particles to sense and respond to…