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Magnet Assisted Composite Manufacturing: A Flexible New Technique for Achieving High Consolidation Pressure in Vacuum Bag/Lay-Up Processes
Published on: May 17, 2018
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Jamming with magnetic composites
Buse Aktaş1,2, Minsoo Kim3, Marc Bäckert4
1Multi-Scale Robotics Laboratory, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. buse.aktas@is.mpg.de.
Nature Communications
|September 30, 2025
Summary
Researchers developed a novel untethered jamming mechanism using magnetic interactions in soft-ferromagnetic composites. This breakthrough enables programmable, adaptive robotic structures without tethers, offering enhanced reconfigurability and scalability.
Area of Science:
- Robotics
- Materials Science
- Soft Matter Physics
Background:
- Jamming transition offers programmable mechanical properties for adaptive structures.
- Current jamming actuation methods (e.g., vacuum) are tethered, limiting applications.
- Need for untethered jamming mechanisms for greater robotic system flexibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce a novel untethered jamming mechanism using magnetic interactions.
- Develop soft-ferromagnetic composites for programmable jamming.
- Demonstrate and model the magneto-mechanical behavior of these composites.
Main Methods:
- Designed soft-ferromagnetic composites with programmable magnetization.
- Utilized external magnetic fields to control jamming.
- Modeled the magneto-mechanical behavior of the jamming composites.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated linear, planar, and volumetric jamming and shape-locking.
- Successfully programmed composite magnetization for controlled jamming.
- Established design principles for tunable jamming behavior.
Conclusions:
- Magnetic interactions provide an effective untethered jamming mechanism.
- Tunable jamming allows for on-the-fly control of material properties.
- This approach advances the development of reconfigurable and scalable robotic structures.
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