{"id":129506,"date":"2025-10-18T04:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T04:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/129506\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T04:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T04:56:13","slug":"us-new-robots-can-snap-into-hundreds-of-shapes-work-on-tough-terrains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/129506\/","title":{"rendered":"US’ new robots can snap into hundreds of shapes, work on tough terrains"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new type of robots developed from thin sheets of material can execute a wide variety of actions despite the fact that they have no motor. Made of a single flat material, the new class of robots can snap into hundreds of stable shapes.<\/p>\n

Developed by a team led by researchers from North Carolina State University, these \u201cmetabots\u201d essentially resemble animated sheets of plastic, capable of moving around a surface or grasping objects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe start out with simple polymer sheets that have holes into them, but by applying thin films to the surface of the polymer we\u2019re able to incorporate materials that respond to electricity or magnetic fields,\u201d said Jie Yin, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese films serve as actuators, allowing us to change the shape of the sheet remotely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robots offer multiple modes of movement<\/p>\n

These flat robots have multiple modes of movement, capable of jumping or crawling at multiple speeds.<\/p>\n

Caizhi Zhou, first author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at NC State, highlighted that 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 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,\u201d added Zhou.<\/p>\n

Robots can change their shape and gait<\/p>\n

The research team also revealed that the robots<\/a> can change their shape and gait to adapt to different terrains or to perform a variety of functions, such as gripping and lifting objects.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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,\u201d added Zhou.<\/p>\n

Published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers\u2019 work<\/a> harnesses developable surface\u2013based 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen integrated with thin sheet\u2013based, 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,\u201d said researchers in the study.<\/p>\n

Researchers also highlighted that 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is early-stage, proof of concept work, but it demonstrates that this approach to robotics is both inexpensive and highly adaptable,\u201d said Yin.
\u201cOur goal was to bridge metamaterials and robotics, and we think the results are promising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new type of robots developed from thin sheets of material can execute a wide variety of actions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[18,19,17,9915,77953,82,77954],"class_list":{"0":"post-129506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-robots","12":"tag-shapes","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-tough-terrains"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}