Intelligent electroactive material systems with self-adaptive mechanical memory and sequential logic.

By synthesizing the requisite functionalities of intelligence in an integrated material system, it may become possible to animate otherwise inanimate matter. A significant challenge in this vision is to continually sense, process, and memorize information in a decentralized way. Here, we introduce an approach that enables all such functionalities in a soft mechanical material system.

Optomechanical computing in liquid crystal elastomers.

Embodied decision-making in soft, engineered matter has sparked recent interest towards the development of intelligent materials. Such decision-making capabilities can be realized in soft materials digital information processing with combinational logic operations. Although previous research has explored soft material actuators and embedded logic in soft materials, achieving a high degree of autonomy in these material systems remains a challenge.

Mechanical integrated circuit materials.

Recent developments in autonomous engineered matter have introduced the ability for intelligent materials to process environmental stimuli and functionally adapt. To formulate a foundation for such an engineered living material paradigm, researchers have introduced sensing and actuating functionalities in soft matter. Yet, information processing is the key functional element of autonomous engineered matter that has been recently explored through unconventional techniques with limited computing scalability.

Digital logic gates in soft, conductive mechanical metamaterials.

Integrated circuits utilize networked logic gates to compute Boolean logic operations that are the foundation of modern computation and electronics. With the emergence of flexible electronic materials and devices, an opportunity exists to formulate digital logic from compliant, conductive materials. Here, we introduce a general method of leveraging cellular, mechanical metamaterials composed of conductive polymers to realize all digital logic gates and gate assemblies.

Directing acoustic energy by flasher-based origami inspired arrays.

Acoustic arrays with fixed spatial positions of transducers are used for wave guiding capabilities in the far field. Recent developments in the field of reconfigurable structures reveal that origami inspired foldable arrays may enhance the near and far field wave guiding functionality by virtue of physical shape change. This research explores reconfigurable acoustic arrays based on the deployable flasher tessellation frame using acoustic transducers at mountain crease nodes.

Foundations for Soft, Smart Matter by Active Mechanical Metamaterials.

Emerging interest to synthesize active, engineered matter suggests a future where smart material systems and structures operate autonomously around people, serving diverse roles in engineering, medical, and scientific applications. Similar to biological organisms, a realization of active, engineered matter necessitates functionality culminating from a combination of sensory and control mechanisms in a versatile material frame. Recently, metamaterial platforms with integrated sensing and control have been exploited, so that outstanding non-natural material behaviors are empowered by synergistic microstructures and controlled by smart materials and systems.

Deployable tessellated transducer array for ultrasound focusing and bio-heat generation in a multilayer environment.

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has great potential to thermally ablate diseased tissues with minimal invasion. Yet, HIFU practice has limited cancer treatment potential since the absorption, diffusion, and reflection of ultrasound prevent HIFU from penetrating the body to deep and concealed diseased tissue. To explore a vision of deployable HIFU transducers, this research introduces an origami-inspired concept wherein a deployable tessellated acoustic array is employed to reduce the distance between the HIFU transducer and diseased tissues.

Piecewise assembled acoustic arrays based on reconfigurable tessellated structures.

Physically reconfigurable, tessellated acoustic arrays inspired by origami structures have recently been leveraged to adaptively guide acoustic energy. Yet, the prior work only examined tessellated arrays composed from uniform folding patterns, so that the limited folding-induced shape change prohibits broad acoustic field tailoring. To explore a wider range of opportunities by origami-inspired acoustic arrays, here, piecewise geometries are assembled from multiple folding patterns so that acoustic transducer elements are reconfigured in more intricate ways upon array folding.

Tailoring broadband acoustic energy suppression characteristics of double porosity metamaterials with compression constraints and mass inclusions.

A metamaterial that capitalizes on a double porosity architecture is introduced for controlling broadband acoustic energy suppression properties. When the metamaterial is subjected to static compressive stress, a global rotation of the internal metamaterial architecture is induced that softens the effective stiffness and results in a considerable means to tailor wave transmission and absorption properties. The influences of mass inclusions and compression constraints are examined by computational and experimental efforts.

Strategies to predict radiated sound fields from foldable, Miura-ori-based transducers for acoustic beamfolding.

To bypass challenges of digital signal processing for acoustic beamforming applications, it is desirable to investigate repeatable mechanical approaches that accurately reposition transducers for real-time, simple guiding of acoustic energy. One promising approach is to create arrays configured on origami-inspired tessellated architectures. The low dimensionality, easy implementation, compactness, and use of straightforward folding to guide acoustic energies suggest that tessellated arrays may bypass limitations of conventional digital signal processing for beamforming.

Theoretical investigations of energy harvesting efficiency from structural vibrations using piezoelectric and electromagnetic oscillators.

Conversion of ambient vibrational energy into electric power has been the impetus of much modern research. The traditional analysis has focused on absolute electrical power output from the harvesting devices and efficiency defined as the convertibility of an infinite resource of vibration excitation into power. This perspective has limited extensibility when applying resonant harvesters to host resonant structures when the inertial influence of the harvester is more significant.