Reprogrammable shape morphing of magnetic soft machines

Morphing soft magnetic composites.

Magnet filler-polymer matrix composites (Magpol) are an emerging class of morphing materials. Applications of Magpol can include artificial muscles, drug delivery, adaptive optics and self healing structures. Advantages of Magpol include remote contactless actuation, several actuation modes, high actuation strain and strain rate, self-sensing and quick response. The actuation modes of Magpol, i...

Morphing Metal and Elastomer Bicontinuous Foams for Reversible Stiffness, Shape Memory, and Self-Healing Soft Machines.

A metal-elastomer-foam composite that varies in stiffness, that can change shape and store shape memory, that self-heals, and that welds into monolithic structures from smaller components is presented.

Shape-programmable magnetic soft matter.

Shape-programmable matter is a class of active materials whose geometry can be controlled to potentially achieve mechanical functionalities beyond those of traditional machines. Among these materials, magnetically actuated matter is particularly promising for achieving complex time-varying shapes at small scale (overall dimensions smaller than 1 cm). However, previous work can only program thes...

Shape-Morphing Nanocomposite Origami

Nature provides a vast array of solid materials that repeatedly and reversibly transform in shape in response to environmental variations. This property is essential, for example, for new energy-saving technologies, efficient collection of solar radiation, and thermal management. Here we report a similar shape-morphing mechanism using differential swelling of hydrophilic polyelectrolyte multila...

Shape spaces from morphing