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Researchers have created a class of robots made from thin sheets of material that can snap into hundreds of stable shapes – allowing them to execute a wide variety of actions despite the fact that they have no motor and are made of a single, flat material. These “metabots” essentially resemble animated sheets of plastic, capable of moving around a surface or grasping objects.
“We start out with simple polymer sheets that have holes into them, but by applying thin films to the surface of the polymer we’re able to incorporate materials that respond to electricity or magnetic fields,” says Jie Yin, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University. “These films serve as actuators, allowing us to change the shape of the sheet remotely.”
“By connecting multiple sheets, we create structures that lie flat initially, but can then bend and fold themselves into a wide variety of stable configurations,” says Caizhi Zhou, first author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at NC State. “For example, if we connect four sheets, you have a metabot that can lie as flat as a sheet of paper, but fold into 256 different stable states.”
These flat robots have multiple modes of movement, capable of jumping or crawling at multiple speeds. Video of the work can be found at https://youtu.be/1yH8l44rrIo?si=oPpwyS0pWK9pdDuA.
“The robots can change their shape and gait to adapt to different terrains or to perform a variety of functions, such as gripping and lifting objects,” says Zhou. “And when we incorporate piezoelectric materials into the thin films, we can cause controlled vibrations in the metabots by varying the voltage and hertz, giving us additional control over their movement. For example, we can have a metabot rotate left or right while staying in one place.”
“This is early-stage, proof of concept work, but it demonstrates that this approach to robotics is both inexpensive and highly adaptable,” says Yin. “Our goal was to bridge metamaterials and robotics, and we think the results are promising.”
The paper, “Multistable thin-shell metastructures for multiresponsive reconfigurable metabots,” is published in the journal Science Advances. The paper was co-authored by Haitao Qing, Haoze Sun and Fangjie Qi, who are Ph.D. students at NC State; and by Yaoye Hong, a former Ph.D. student at NC State who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.
This work was done with support from the National Science Foundation under grants 2329674 and 2445551.
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Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.
“Multistable thin-shell metastructures for multiresponsive reconfigurable metabots”
Authors: Caizhi Zhou, Haitao Qing, Haoze Sun, Fangjie Qi, Yaoye Hong and Jie Yin, North Carolina State University
Published: Oct. 15, Science Advances
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adx4359
Abstract: Multistable metastructures can switch between multiple stable configurations without requiring locking forces. However, their potential for creating reconfigurable robots—metabots—capable of adapting to changing environments remains largely unexplored. Here, we report harnessing developable surface–based multistable thin-shell metastructures with high reconfigurability for adaptive manipulation and locomotion. These multistable metastructures are constructed by cutting and bonding thin polymer sheets with patterned cutouts, enabling programmable prestored elastic energy. A single unit achieves up to 20 stable configurations, while a four-unit assembly yields 256 reconfigured states, through simple folding of dynamic virtual creases. When integrated with thin sheet–based, multiresponsive soft actuators, these metastructures become highly adaptive metabots, including universal, noninvasive bistable soft grippers; magnetic multigait jumpers; and dual-responsive crawlers powered by magnetic and electroactive actuation. These systems exhibit high adaptability and maneuverability, capable of navigating complex terrains and confined environments via on-demand shape transformations, paving the way for energy-efficient, reconfigurable soft robotic platforms.
