Related papers: (Dis)continuous buckling transition in elastic she…
Topological defects -- locations of local mismatch of order -- are a universal concept playing important roles in diverse systems studied in physics and beyond, including the universe, various condensed matter systems, and recently, even…
Soft and lightweight grippers have greatly enhanced the performance of robotic manipulators in handling complex objects with varying shape, texture, and stiffness. However, the combination of universal grasping with passive sensing…
Almost all robotic systems in use have hard shells, which is limiting in many ways their full potential of physical interaction with humans or their surrounding environment. Robots with soft-shell covers offer an alternative morphology…
Characteristic modes of a spherical shell are found analytically as spherical harmonics normalized to radiate unitary power and to fulfill specific boundary conditions. The presented closed-form formulas lead to a proposal of precise…
Soft Robots distinguish themselves from traditional robots by embracing flexible kinematics. Because of their recent emergence, there exist numerous uncharted territories, including novel actuators, manufacturing processes, and advanced…
Frictional contact has been extensively studied as the core underlying behavior of legged locomotion and manipulation, and its nearly-discontinuous nature makes planning and control difficult even when an accurate model of the robot is…
The dynamic of contact formation between soft materials immersed in a fluid is accompanied by fluid drainage and elastic deformation. As a result, controlling the coupling between lubrication pressure and elasticity provides strategies to…
A submerged finite cylinder moving under its own weight along a soft incline lifts off and slides at a steady velocity while also spinning. Here, we experimentally quantify the steady spinning of the cylinder and show theoretically that it…
On microscopic scales, the crystallinity of flexible tethered or cross linked membranes determines their mechanical response. We show that by controlling the type, number and distribution of defects on a spherical elastic shell, it is…
Cavitation and bubble dynamics are central concepts in engineering, the natural sciences, and the mathematics of fluid mechanics. Due to the nonlinear nature of their dynamics, the governing equations are not fully solvable. Here, the…
Bistable structures associated with non-linear deformation behavior, exemplified by the Venus flytrap and slap bracelet, can switch between different functional shapes upon actuation. Despite numerous efforts in modeling such large…
The buckling instabilities of core-shell systems, comprising an interior elastic sphere, attached to an exterior shell, have been proposed to underlie myriad biological morphologies. To fully discuss such systems, however, it is important…
Inspired by biological systems, we introduce a general framework for quasi-static shape control of human-scale structures under slowly varying external actions or requirements. In this setting, shape control aims to traverse the stable…
Using molecular dynamics (MD) we study the dependency of the contact mechanics on the sliding speed when an elastically soft slab (block) is sliding on a rigid substrate with a ${\rm sin} (q_0 x)$ surface height profile. The atoms on the…
The dynamic interactions between pairs of swimming microorganisms underpin the collective behaviour of larger suspensions, but accurately calculating pairwise collisions has typically required the use of numerical simulations in which…
Modeling the dynamics of colloidal rods remains a central challenge in soft-matter physics due to the anisotropic and long-ranged nature of their interactions. Hydrodynamic interactions in rods suspensions are often assumed to be screened…
The dependence of the scaling properties of the structure factor on space dimensionality, range of interaction, initial and final conditions, presence or absence of a conservation law is analysed in the framework of the large-N model for…
We use computer simulations to study the morphology and rheological properties of a bidimensional emulsion resulting from a mixture of a passive isotropic fluid and an active contractile polar gel, in the presence of a surfactant that…
In this paper, we systematically study the dynamic snap-through behavior of a pre-deformed elastic ribbon by combining theoretical analysis, discrete numerical simulations, and experiments. By rotating one of its clamped ends with…
This study introduces a modeling approach aimed at elucidating the pivotal role of symmetry in phase transitions, focusing specifically on the isotropic-nematic (I-N) transition characteristic of liquid crystal systems. By leveraging…