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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 5, 2025

Characterizing Dissipative Elastic Metamaterials Produced by Additive Manufacturing

Characterizing Dissipative Elastic Metamaterials Produced by Additive Manufacturing

Published on: June 28, 2024

Soft Adaptive Mechanical Metamaterials.

Romik Khajehtourian¹, Dennis M Kochmann¹

¹Mechanics and Materials Lab, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

|May 20, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study introduces substrate-free reconfigurable structures using multistable unit cells for advanced soft robotics. These nonlinear metamaterials enable controlled reconfiguration and wave propagation for novel applications.

Keywords:

auxeticity metamaterial multistability phase transformation reconfigurable structures transition wave

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Area of Science:

Soft robotics
Metamaterials
Nonlinear dynamics

Background:

Soft materials offer unique advantages for robotics, enabling tasks like object gripping without prior stiffness knowledge.
Current soft robotics locomotion faces challenges, with structural instabilities and bistable actuators emerging as key solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate substrate-free reconfigurable structures composed of multistable unit cells.
To explore the potential of nonconvex strain energy potentials for structural transitions and nonlinear wave generation.

Main Methods:

Utilizing a triangular unit cell design space to identify suitable configurations.
Employing a continuum description to model and predict structural behavior.
Analyzing geometric and material properties to map structure behavior.

Main Results:

Demonstrated that sufficient released energy during transition can balance dissipation and kinetic energy, forming a traveling wave front.
Showcased the ability of these structures to undergo permanent or reversible reconfiguration.
Predicted and mapped the behavior of resulting structures across various parameters.

Conclusions:

Multistable unit cells with nonconvex strain energy potentials can generate strongly nonlinear transition waves for reconfiguration.
These nonlinear metamaterials offer significant potential for soft robotics propulsion, morphing surfaces, and reconfigurable devices.