From Soft to Strong: Designing Active and Adaptive Robotic Materials

Yifan Wang presents approaches to robotic materials that are soft enough to deform, adapt and interact safely yet strong enough to carry loads and do useful work, by programming material architecture, connectivity and active response across scales. Geometric and topological design overcomes the trade-off between shape morphing and stiffness: scale-inspired layered structures combine complex deformation with controllable load bearing, and topologically interlocked fabrics use collective interactions and jamming to switch from conformable sheets to stiff structures. Active fibres and hierarchical tessellations enable programmable three-dimensional morphing and customised human assistance, and granular metamaterials with reconfigurable bonds assemble, disassemble and rearrange for adaptive mechanical and robotic functions. Coaxial direct ink writing embeds conductive pathways, dielectric insulation and actuation in three-dimensional structures, yielding electrostatic fibres and lattices for programmable clutches, shape morphing, artificial muscles and swimming robots.