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Proprioception is the "sixth sense" that detects limb postures with motor neurons. It requires a natural integration between the musculoskeletal systems and sensory receptors, which is challenging among modern robots that aim for…
The buckling of a soft elastic sample under growth or swelling has highlighted a new interest in materials science, morphogenesis, and biology or physiology. Indeed, the change of mass or volume is a common fact of any living species, and…
Metabolic networks are probably among the most challenging and important biological networks. Their study provides insight into how biological pathways work and how robust a specific organism is against an environment or therapy. Here we…
One of the important advantages of musculoskeletal humanoids is that the muscle arrangement can be easily changed and the number of muscles can be increased according to the situation. In this study, we describe an overall system of muscle…
Networks of flexible filaments often involve regions of tight contact. Predictively understanding the equilibrium configurations of these systems is challenging due to intricate couplings between topology, geometry, large nonlinear…
Macroscopic elastic core-shell systems can be generated as toy models to be deformed and haptically studied by hand. On the mesoscale, colloidal core-shell particles and microgels are fabricated and investigated by different types of…
High-throughput characterization of architected materials across a wide range of length scales enables rapid screening of topologies for engineering applications. Scaled-down specimens manufactured and evaluated in laboratory environments…
Soft robotics holds transformative potential for enabling adaptive and adaptable systems in dynamic environments. However, the interplay between morphological and control complexities and their collective impact on task performance remains…
Humans rely on ankle torque to maintain standing balance, particularly in the presence of small to moderate perturbations. Reductions in maximum torque (MT) production and maximum rate of torque development (MRTD) occur at the ankle with…
Space-saving design is a requirement that is encountered in biological systems and the development of modern technological devices alike. Many living organisms dynamically pack their polymer chains, filaments or membranes inside of…
Trabecular bone is a lightweight, compliant material organized as a web of struts and rods (trabeculae) that erode with age and the onset of bone diseases like osteoporosis, leading to increased fracture risk. The traditional diagnostic…
The bodies of snakes, such as king cobras, are very soft so that it is nearly impossible for them to raise their heads higher than around one meter. By direct measurement, we were only possible to hold the body of a freshly killed cobra…
In simple models side chains are often represented implicitly (e.g., by spin-states) or simplified as one atom. We study side chain effects using square lattice and tetrahedral lattice models, with explicitly side chains of two atoms. We…
Bone remodeling involves the coordinated removal of bone by osteoclasts and addition of bone by osteoblasts, a process that is modulated by the prevailing mechanical environment. In this paper a fully coupled model of bone remodeling is…
We address the mechanics of an elastic ribbon subjected to twist and tensile load. Motivated by the classical work of Green and a recent experiment that discovered a plethora of morphological instabilities, we introduce a comprehensive…
Biological and artificial agents need to deal with constant changes in the real world. We study this problem in four classical continuous control environments, augmented with morphological perturbations. Learning to locomote when the length…
Proteins are essential biological macromolecules that execute life functions. Local structural motifs, such as active sites, are the most critical components for linking structure to function and are key to understanding protein evolution…
Ants are highly capable of grasping objects in clutter, and we have recently observed that this involves substantial use of their forelegs. The forelegs, more specifically the tarsi, have high friction microstructures (setal pads), are…
Tendon-bone enthesis connects tendon and bone, two mechanically dissimilar materials, while effectively minimizing stress concentrations, a capability rarely achieved in engineering materials. Its hierarchical organization and graded…
Reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials, composed of a lattice of discretely adaptive elements, are emerging as a promising platform for mechanical intelligence. To operate in unknown environments, such structures must go beyond passive…