DEFORMATION DRIVEN PROGRAMMABLE METAMATERIALS AND SOFT MACHINES

Mechanical metamaterials are becoming an emerging frontier in scientific research

and engineering innovation due to its unique properties, arising from innovative

geometrical designs rather than constituent materials. Reconfigurable metamaterials can

change their shapes and structures dramatically under external forces or environmental

stimuli. It offers an enhanced flexibility in performance by coupling dynamically changing

structural configuration and tunable properties, which has found broad potential

applications in 3D meso-structures assembly and programmable machines. Despite

extensive studies on harnessing origami, the ancient paper folding art, for design of

mechanical metamaterials, the study on utilizing its close cousin, kirigami (“kiri” means

cut), for programmable reconfigurable mechanical metamaterials and machines remains

largely unexplored. In this dissertation, I explore harnessing the uniqueness of cuts in

kirigami for achieving extraordinary mechanical properties and multifunctionalities in

krigami-based metamaterials, as well as its potential applications in programmable

machines and soft robotics.