Programmable Deployment of Multistable Origami Metasurfaces through Algorithmically Distributed State Alteration

Achieving a prescribed 1- or 2-dimensional curvature from a flat shape, and their active modulation through far-field intelligent control, is crucial for a range of technologically demanding applications. In this article, we endeavor to exploit the bistable mechanics of waterbomb origami units, their strategic assembly, and spatially sequential alteration of local stability states to develop a new class of active metasurfaces. Based on a series of computational and experimental investigations, we propose a sequentially programmable approach of far-field stimuli-responsive activation, exploiting locally controllable bistability for achieving target curvatures that can hold their shapes without any external energy supply. A magnetic beam amplification system is developed and tested, demonstrating contactless stability state inversion of waterbomb units, which would essentially lead to prescribed curvatures in an origami-architected 1- or 2-dimensional domain. We further demonstrate that algorithmic control of localized stability states and their dynamic inversion can lead to robotic locomotion. The presented concept of spatially sequential stability state alteration, leading to the multifunctionality of actively reconfigurable metasurfaces, gripper function, and robotic locomotion, will find critical engineering applications in the fields of active and reconfigurable antennas, solar panels, aerodynamically adaptive aerofoils, soft robotics, energy-efficient grippers, biomedical apparatus, and programmable optical and acoustic devices.