Related papers: Why Decussate? Topological Constraints on 3D Wirin…
Tendon-driven mechanisms are useful from the perspectives of variable stiffness, redundant actuation, and lightweight design, and they are widely used, particularly in hands, wrists, and waists of robots. The design of these wire…
Information processing devices operating in the quantum mechanical regime strongly rely on the quantum coherence of charge carriers. Studies of electronic dephasing in conventional metallic and semiconductor systems have not only paved the…
Coupled-wire constructions have proven to be useful tools to characterize Abelian and non-Abelian topological states of matter in two spatial dimensions. In many cases, their success has been complemented by the vast arsenal of other…
Metasurfaces advanced the field of optics by reducing the thickness of optical components and merging multiple functionalities into a single layer device. However, this generally comes with a reduction in performance, especially for…
Understanding conformational change is crucial for programming and controlling the function of many mechanical systems such as allosteric enzymes and tunable metamaterials. Of particular interest is the relationship between the network…
The capacity to adapt can greatly influence the success of systems that need to compensate for damaged parts, learn how to achieve robust performance in new environments, or exploit novel opportunities that originate from new technological…
For robots to become more versatile and expand their areas of application, their bodies need to be suitable for contact with the environment. When the human body comes into contact with the environment, it is possible for it to continue to…
How can dense biological tissue maintain sharp boundaries between coexisting cell populations? We explore this question within a simple vertex model for cells, focusing on the role of topology and tissue surface tension. We show that the…
Topology is an important determinant of the behavior of a great number of condensed-matter systems, but until recently has played a minor role in elasticity. We develop a theory for the deformations of a class of twisted non-Euclidean…
Biological neural networks operate in the presence of task disruptions as they guide organisms toward goals. A familiar stream of stimulus-response causations can be disrupted by subtask streams imposed by the environment. For example,…
Axons functionally link the somato-dendritic compartment to synaptic terminals. Structurally and functionally diverse, they accomplish a central role in determining the delays and reliability with which neuronal ensembles communicate. By…
In topological phases of matter for which the bulk and boundary support distinct electronic gaps, there exists the possibility of decoupled mobility gaps in the presence of disorder. This is in analogy with the well-studied problem of…
The ability to reroute and control flow is vital to the function of venation networks across a wide range of organisms. By modifying individual edges in these networks, either by adjusting edge conductances or creating and destroying edges,…
In edge computing deployments, where devices may be in close proximity to each other, these devices may offload similar computational tasks (i.e., tasks with similar input data for the same edge computing service or for services of the same…
Computations on the dendritic trees of neurons have important constraints. Voltage dependent conductances in dendrites are not similar to arbitrary direct-current generation, they are the basis for dendritic nonlinearities and they do not…
Topological defects determine the collective properties of anisotropic materials. How their configurations are controlled is not well understood however, especially in 3D. In living matter moreover, 2D defects have been linked to biological…
Medical image segmentation plays a crucial role in advancing healthcare systems for disease diagnosis and treatment planning. The u-shaped architecture, popularly known as U-Net, has proven highly successful for various medical image…
Natural organisms utilize distributed actuation through their musculoskeletal systems to adapt their gait for traversing diverse terrains or to morph their bodies for varied tasks. A longstanding challenge in robotics is to emulate this…
The origin of rigidity in disordered materials is an outstanding open problem in statistical physics. Previously, a class of 2D cellular models has been shown to undergo a rigidity transition controlled by a mechanical parameter that…
Machine learning at the edge offers great benefits such as increased privacy and security, low latency, and more autonomy. However, a major challenge is that many devices, in particular edge devices, have very limited memory, weak…