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Self-oscillating polymeric refrigerator with high energy efficiency
We report on a near-zero-power flexible heat pump that uses both electrocaloric and electrostrictive properties of a tailored polymer to create a chip-scale refrigerator device.
- Donglin Han
- , Yingjing Zhang
- & Xiaoshi Qian
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Corner- and edge-mode enhancement of near-field radiative heat transfer
Near-field radiative heat transfer between two coplanar silicon carbide membranes in close proximity is enhanced by the electromagnetic corner and edge modes.
- Lei Tang
- , Lívia M. Corrêa
- & Chris Dames
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Shell buckling for programmable metafluids
A metafluid with programmable compressibility, optical behaviour and viscosity is realized by mixing deformable spherical shells that undergo buckling within an incompressible fluid; the versatility of these metafluids opens up numerous opportunities for functionality.
- Adel Djellouli
- , Bert Van Raemdonck
- & Katia Bertoldi
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Non-reciprocal topological solitons in active metamaterials
A local driving mechanism for solitons that accelerates both solitons and antisolitons in the same direction, called non-reciprocal driving, is introduced, showing a subtle interplay between non-reciprocity and topological solitons and providing waveguiding and wave-processing possibilities for other fields.
- Jonas Veenstra
- , Oleksandr Gamayun
- & Corentin Coulais
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| Open AccessRoll-to-roll, high-resolution 3D printing of shape-specific particles
We introduce a scalable, high-resolution, 3D printing technique for the fabrication of shape-specific particles based on roll-to-roll continuous liquid interface production, enabling direct integration within biomedical, analytical and advanced materials applications.
- Jason M. Kronenfeld
- , Lukas Rother
- & Joseph M. DeSimone
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High fatigue resistance in a titanium alloy via near-void-free 3D printing
We successfully rebuild an approximate void-free additive manufacturing microstructure in Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy by the development of a void-free additive manufacturing processing technique through an understanding of the asynchronism of phase transformation and grain growth.
- Zhan Qu
- , Zhenjun Zhang
- & Zhefeng Zhang
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| Open AccessAvoiding fusion plasma tearing instability with deep reinforcement learning
Artificial intelligence control is used to avoid the emergence of disruptive tearing instabilities in the magnetically confined fusion plasma in the DIII-D tokamak reactor.
- Jaemin Seo
- , SangKyeun Kim
- & Egemen Kolemen
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| Open AccessHigh-quality semiconductor fibres via mechanical design
A mechanical design is developed for the fabrication of ultralong, fracture-free and perturbation-free semiconductor fibres to address the increasing demand for flexible and wearable optoelectronics.
- Zhixun Wang
- , Zhe Wang
- & Lei Wei
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Multiscale stress deconcentration amplifies fatigue resistance of rubber
A rubber in which highly entangled long polymers strongly adhere with rigid particles deconcentrates stress across multiple scales, amplifying the fatigue threshold.
- Jason Steck
- , Junsoo Kim
- & Zhigang Suo
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| Open AccessVision-controlled jetting for composite systems and robots
We have developed an automated and high-throughput, three-dimensional, vision-controlled inkjet deposition process that enables the high-resolution, contactless printing of a range of materials with varying elastic moduli to create complex structures and robots.
- Thomas J. K. Buchner
- , Simon Rogler
- & Robert K. Katzschmann
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| Open AccessBridging two insect flight modes in evolution, physiology and robophysics
Asynchronous flight in all major groups of insects likely arose from a single common ancestor with reversions to a synchronous flight mode enabled by shifts back and forth between different regimes in the same set of dynamic parameters.
- Jeff Gau
- , James Lynch
- & Simon Sponberg
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Multistable sheets with rewritable patterns for switchable shape-morphing
To demonstrate the power of multistability, a specific class of groovy metasheets is introduced as a new shape-morphing platform that allows repeated switching from the flat state to multiple, precisely selected and stable three-dimensional shapes.
- A. S. Meeussen
- & M. van Hecke
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Turbulence suppression by cardiac-cycle-inspired driving of pipe flow
Turbulence can be reduced by more than 25% in ordinary pipe flow by unsteady, pulsatile driving specifically mimicking the cardiac cycle and extending this method to large Reynolds numbers.
- D. Scarselli
- , J. M. Lopez
- & B. Hof
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| Open AccessChampion-level drone racing using deep reinforcement learning
An autonomous system is described that combines deep reinforcement learning with onboard sensors collecting data from the physical world, enabling it to fly faster than human world champion drone pilots around a race track.
- Elia Kaufmann
- , Leonard Bauersfeld
- & Davide Scaramuzza
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Solid-body trajectoids shaped to roll along desired pathways
An algorithm is developed to design a shape, a trajectoid, that can trace any given infinite periodic trajectory when rolling down a slope, finding unexpected implications for quantum and classical optics.
- Yaroslav I. Sobolev
- , Ruoyu Dong
- & Bartosz A. Grzybowski
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| Open AccessHigh-throughput printing of combinatorial materials from aerosols
The authors report a high-throughput combinatorial printing method capable of fabricating materials with compositional gradients at microscale spatial resolution, demonstrating a variety of high-throughput printing strategies and applications in combinatorial doping, functional grading and chemical reaction.
- Minxiang Zeng
- , Yipu Du
- & Yanliang Zhang
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Dense reinforcement learning for safety validation of autonomous vehicles
An intelligent environment has been developed for testing the safety performance of autonomous vehicles and its effectiveness has been demonstrated for highway and urban test tracks in an augmented-reality environment.
- Shuo Feng
- , Haowei Sun
- & Henry X. Liu
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Autonomous self-burying seed carriers for aerial seeding
A study describes a wood-based, three-tailed, biodegradable seed carrier that self-drills into the ground in response to moisture fluctuations with a success rate higher than that of natural self-drilling seeds.
- Danli Luo
- , Aditi Maheshwari
- & Lining Yao
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Anomalous thermal transport under high pressure in boron arsenide
Competition between three- and four-phonon scattering processes is shown to be the source of a unique anomalous thermal conductivity in boron arsenide at high pressures.
- Suixuan Li
- , Zihao Qin
- & Yongjie Hu
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Multi-environment robotic transitions through adaptive morphogenesis
A design strategy termed ‘adaptive morphogenesis’ enables a robot inspired by aquatic and terrestrial turtles to adapt its limb morphology and gait to specialize for locomotion in different environments.
- Robert Baines
- , Sree Kalyan Patiballa
- & Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio
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| Open AccessPersonalizing exoskeleton assistance while walking in the real world
A portable ankle exoskeleton uses a data-driven method and wearable sensors to adapt to the user as they walk in a natural setting.
- Patrick Slade
- , Mykel J. Kochenderfer
- & Steven H. Collins
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Fast charging of energy-dense lithium-ion batteries
A new approach to charging energy-dense electric vehicle batteries, using temperature modulation with a dual-salt electrolyte, promises a range in excess of 500,000 miles using only rapid (under 12 minute) charges.
- Chao-Yang Wang
- , Teng Liu
- & Brian D. McCarthy
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A dynamically reprogrammable surface with self-evolving shape morphing
The work presents a reprogrammable metasurface, constructed from a matrix of filamentary metal traces, that can precisely and rapidly morph into a wide range of target shapes and dynamic shape processes.
- Yun Bai
- , Heling Wang
- & Xiaoyue Ni
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Mechanical integrated circuit materials
A mechanical integrated circuit material based on Boolean mathematics and reconfigurable electrical circuits is created to demonstrate scalable information processing in synthetic, engineered soft matter.
- Charles El Helou
- , Benjamin Grossmann
- & Ryan L. Harne
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Strong yet ductile nanolamellar high-entropy alloys by additive manufacturing
An additive manufacturing strategy is used to produce dual-phase nanolamellar high-entropy alloys that show a combination of enhanced high yield strength and high tensile ductility.
- Jie Ren
- , Yin Zhang
- & Wen Chen
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Intermittent lab earthquakes in dynamically weakening fault gouge
Lab experiments show that spontaneously propagating ruptures navigate fault regions through intermittent slip with dramatic friction evolution, providing support that weakening mechanisms may allow ruptures to break through stable faults.
- V. Rubino
- , N. Lapusta
- & A. J. Rosakis
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Cilia metasurfaces for electronically programmable microfluidic manipulation
Artificial cilia composed of surface electrochemical actuators are combined in arrays to create arbitrary flow patterns in liquids, and, when integrated with light-powered CMOS circuits, enable programmable wireless operation at low voltage.
- Wei Wang
- , Qingkun Liu
- & Itai Cohen
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Engineered jumpers overcome biological limits via work multiplication
A comparison of the energetics of jumping between biological and engineered systems shows that engineered systems can greatly increase energy limits using the process of work multiplication, and this analysis leads to the demonstration of a 30-centimetre device jumping over 30 metres.
- Elliot W. Hawkes
- , Charles Xiao
- & Günter Niemeyer
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Perspective |
Towards enduring autonomous robots via embodied energy
The concept of 'Embodied Energy'—in which the components of a robot or device both store energy and provide a mechanical or structural function—is put forward, along with specific robot-design principles.
- Cameron A. Aubin
- , Benjamin Gorissen
- & Robert F. Shepherd
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Inhibiting the Leidenfrost effect above 1,000 °C for sustained thermal cooling
Structured thermal armours on the surface of a solid inhibit the Leidenfrost effect, even when heated to temperatures in excess of 1,000 °C, pointing the way towards new cooling strategies for high-temperature solids.
- Mengnan Jiang
- , Yang Wang
- & Zuankai Wang
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| Open AccessNovel flight style and light wings boost flight performance of tiny beetles
Three-dimensional reconstructions of morphology and flight mechanics of the beetle Paratuposa placentis reveal adaptations that enable extremely small insects to fly at speeds similar to those of much larger insects.
- Sergey E. Farisenkov
- , Dmitry Kolomenskiy
- & Alexey A. Polilov
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Bubble casting soft robotics
An all-in-one methodology for fabricating soft robotics reported here uses interfacial flows in elastomers that cure to produce actuators that can be tailored to suit applications from artificial muscles to grippers.
- Trevor J. Jones
- , Etienne Jambon-Puillet
- & P.-T. Brun
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Drop-in fuels from sunlight and air
Carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuels can be produced using sunlight and air via a thermochemical solar fuel production chain, thus representing a pathway towards the long-term decarbonization of the aviation sector.
- Remo Schäppi
- , David Rutz
- & Aldo Steinfeld
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Dexterous magnetic manipulation of conductive non-magnetic objects
Time-varying magnetic fields can be used to manipulate the position and orientation of conductive non-magnetic objects.
- Lan N. Pham
- , Griffin F. Tabor
- & Jake J. Abbott
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Mechanical computing
Computing approaches based on mechanical mechanisms are discussed, with a view towards a framework in which adaptable materials and structures act as a distributed information processing network.
- Hiromi Yasuda
- , Philip R. Buskohl
- & Jordan R. Raney
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Three-dimensional electronic microfliers inspired by wind-dispersed seeds
With a design inspired by wind-dispersed seeds, a series of three-dimensional passive fliers at the macro-, meso- and microscale are realized that can bear active electronic payloads.
- Bong Hoon Kim
- , Kan Li
- & John A. Rogers
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Structured fabrics with tunable mechanical properties
A structured fabric constructed of linked hollow polyhedral particles (resembling chain mail) can be simply and reversibly tuned between flexible and rigid states; when it is compressed, its linked particles become jammed.
- Yifan Wang
- , Liuchi Li
- & Chiara Daraio
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Intrinsic toughening and stable crack propagation in hexagonal boron nitride
Single-crystal monolayer hexagonal boron nitride is unexpectedly tough owing to its asymmetric lattice structure, which facilitates repeated crack deflection, crack branching and edge swapping, enhancing energy dissipation.
- Yingchao Yang
- , Zhigong Song
- & Jun Lou
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Multistable inflatable origami structures at the metre scale
Origami-inspired multistable structures that can be inflated from flat to three dimensions have been designed; a library of foldable shapes is created and then combined to build metre-scale functional structures.
- David Melancon
- , Benjamin Gorissen
- & Katia Bertoldi
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Liquid-induced topological transformations of cellular microstructures
A two-tiered dynamic design strategy achieves topological transformations of two-dimensional polymeric cellular microstructures in a reversible and temporally controllable manner through exposure to different liquids.
- Shucong Li
- , Bolei Deng
- & Joanna Aizenberg
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Self-powered soft robot in the Mariana Trench
A free-swimming soft robot inspired by deep-sea creatures, with artificial muscle, power and control electronics spread across a polymer matrix, successfully adapts to high pressure and operates in the deep ocean.
- Guorui Li
- , Xiangping Chen
- & Wei Yang
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Developing fibrillated cellulose as a sustainable technological material
Opportunities for the application of fibrillated cellulose materials—which can be extracted from renewable resources—and broader manufacturing issues of scale-up, sustainability and synergy with the paper-making industry are discussed.
- Tian Li
- , Chaoji Chen
- & Liangbing Hu
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Ultra-sensitive and resilient compliant strain gauges for soft machines
Strain gauges with both high sensitivity and high mechanical resilience, based on strain-mediated contact in anisotropically resistive structures, are demonstrated within a sensor-integrated, textile-based sleeve that can recognize human hand motions via muscle deformations.
- Oluwaseun A. Araromi
- , Moritz A. Graule
- & Robert J. Wood
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Toughening mechanisms of the elytra of the diabolical ironclad beetle
A jigsaw-style configuration of interlocking structures identified in the elytra of the remarkably tough diabolical ironclad beetle, Phloeodes diabolicus, is used to inspire crush-resistant multilayer composites for engineering joints.
- Jesus Rivera
- , Maryam Sadat Hosseini
- & David Kisailus
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Co-designing electronics with microfluidics for more sustainable cooling
Cooling efficiency is greatly increased by directly embedding liquid cooling into electronic chips, using microfluidics-based heat sinks that are designed in conjunction with the electronics within the same semiconductor substrate.
- Remco van Erp
- , Reza Soleimanzadeh
- & Elison Matioli
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Electronically integrated, mass-manufactured, microscopic robots
A new class of voltage-controllable electrochemical actuators that are compatible with silicon processing are used to produce over one million sub-hundred-micrometre walking robots on a single four-inch wafer.
- Marc Z. Miskin
- , Alejandro J. Cortese
- & Itai Cohen
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Vulnerability of Antarctica’s ice shelves to meltwater-driven fracture
Using a neural network trained on continent-wide data and a fracture model, the ice shelves in Antarctica that may be prone to hydrofracturing under further atmospheric warming are identified.
- Ching-Yao Lai
- , Jonathan Kingslake
- & J. Melchior van Wessem
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High-strength Damascus steel by additive manufacturing
A Damascus-like steel consisting of alternating hard and soft layers is created by using a laser additive manufacturing technique and digital control of the processing parameters.
- Philipp Kürnsteiner
- , Markus Benjamin Wilms
- & Dierk Raabe
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Layered nanocomposites by shear-flow-induced alignment of nanosheets
Layered nanocomposites fabricated using a continuous and scalable process achieve properties exceeding those of natural nacre, the result of stiffened matrix polymer chains confined between highly aligned nanosheets.
- Chuangqi Zhao
- , Pengchao Zhang
- & Lei Jiang