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In recent human-robot collaboration environments, there is a growing focus on integrating diverse sensor data beyond visual information to enable safer and more intelligent task execution. Although thermal data can be crucial for enhancing…
Variable stiffness is a key capability in biological and robotic systems, enabling adaptive interaction across tasks and environments. Mechanical metamaterials offer an alternative to conventional mechatronic solutions by encoding stiffness…
Superlattice-like phase change memory (SL-PCM) promises lower switching current than conventional PCM based on Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST). However, a fundamental understanding of SL-PCM requires detailed characterization of the interfaces within such…
We have investigated the thermoelasticity of body-centered cubic (bcc) tantalum from first principles by using the linearized augmented plane wave (LAPW) and mixed--basis pseudopotential methods for pressures up to 400 GPa and temperatures…
Materials made from active, living, or robotic components can display emergent properties arising from local sensing and computation. Here, we realize a freestanding active metabeam with piezoelectric elements and electronic feed-forward…
In recent years, the development of robots capable of operating in both aerial and aquatic environments has gained significant attention. This study presents the design and fabrication of a novel aerial-aquatic locomotion robot (AALR).…
Multilayer piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) actuators are a promising approach to enhance performance of soft microrobotic systems. In this work, we develop and characterize multilayer PVDF actuators with parallel voltage…
The successful implementation of Physical Human-Robot Interaction in industrial environments depends on ensuring safe collaboration between human operators and robotic devices. This necessitates the adoption of measures that guarantee the…
Many thermo-mechanical processes, such as thermal expansion and stress relaxation, originate at the atomistic scale. We develop a sequential multiscale approach to study thermally stressed superelastic polyimide to explore these effects.…
Semi-flexible polyelectrolytes are a group of biopolymers with a wide range of applications from drag reducing agents in turbulent flows to thickening agents in food and cosmetics. In this study, we investigate the rheology of aqueous…
Adding thermal conductivity enhancements to increase thermal power in solid-liquid phase-change thermal energy storage modules compromises volumetric energy density and often times reduces the mass and volume of active phase change material…
A fixed time-step variational integrator cannot preserve momentum, energy, and symplectic form simultaneously for nonintegrable systems. This barrier can be overcome by treating time as a discrete dynamic variable and deriving adaptive…
Bimorph films curl in response to temperature. The degree of curvature typically varies linearly with temperature and in proportion to the difference in thermal expansion of the individual layers. In many applications, such as controlling a…
We present a thermal activated solvent bonding technique for the formation of embedded microstrucutres in polymer. It is based on the temperature dependent solubility of polymer in a liquid that is not a solvent at room temperature. With…
Fast and safe manipulation of flexible objects with a robot manipulator necessitates measures to cope with vibrations. Existing approaches either increase the task execution time or require complex models and/or additional instrumentation…
Aging populations and the rising prevalence of neurological and musculoskeletal disorders increase the demand for wearable mobility assistive devices that are effective, comfortable, and anatomically compatible. Many existing systems use…
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…
The goal of this paper is to develop and analyze some fully discrete finite element methods for a displacement-pressure model modeling swelling dynamics of polymer gels under mechanical constraints. In the model, the swelling dynamics is…
Compared to traditional rigid robotics, soft robotics has attracted increasing attention due to its advantages as compliance, safety, and low cost. As an essential part of soft robotics, the soft robotic gripper also shows its superior…
Effective thermal management is critical for lithium-ion battery packs' safe and efficient operations, particularly in applications such as drones, where compact designs and varying airflow conditions present unique challenges. This study…