Mechanical engineering articles from across Nature Portfolio

Lithium-ion batteries are integral to modern technologies but the sustainability of long-term battery health is a significant and persistent challenge. In this perspective Borah and colleagues discuss the integration of physics and machine learning to support developments in battery performance and safety.

Additive manufacturing plays an essential role in producing metamaterials by precisely controlling geometries and multiscale structures to achieve the desired properties. In this Comment, we highlight the challenges and opportunities from additive manufacturing for computational metamaterials design.

A direct ink-writing technique that relies on tension in the nozzle can be used to print free-standing metal structures with aspect ratios of up to 750:1.

Recent advancements in generative AI require multimodal information processing that incorporates images, videos and audio. This shift underscores the importance of integrating AI with robotics to address challenges such as Moravec’s paradox.

Morphing soft matter, which is capable of changing its shape and function in response to stimuli, has wide-ranging applications in robotics, medicine and biology. Recently, computational models have accelerated its development. Here, we highlight advances and challenges in developing computational techniques, and explore the potential applications enabled by such models.

The curse of rarity—the rarity of safety-critical events in high-dimensional variable spaces—presents significant challenges in ensuring the safety of autonomous vehicles using deep learning. Looking at it from distinct perspectives, the authors identify three potential approaches for addressing the issue.