Realization of active metamaterials with odd micropolar elasticity

Materials made from active, living, or robotic components can display emergent properties arising from local sensing and computation. Here, we realize a freestanding active metabeam with piezoelectric elements and electronic feed-forward control that gives rise to an odd micropolar elasticity absent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 5935 - 12
Main Authors Chen, Yangyang, Li, Xiaopeng, Scheibner, Colin, Vitelli, Vincenzo, Huang, Guoliang
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.10.2021
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects
639/301/1023/303
639/766/25/3927
Bending modulus
Conservation laws
Elastic properties
Energy
Energy conservation
Feedforward control
Humanities and Social Sciences
Localization
Mechanical properties
Metamaterials
Modulus of elasticity
multidisciplinary
Piezoelectricity
Robot components
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Shearing
Symmetry
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Summary:Materials made from active, living, or robotic components can display emergent properties arising from local sensing and computation. Here, we realize a freestanding active metabeam with piezoelectric elements and electronic feed-forward control that gives rise to an odd micropolar elasticity absent in energy-conserving media. The non-reciprocal odd modulus enables bending and shearing cycles that convert electrical energy into mechanical work, and vice versa. The sign of this elastic modulus is linked to a non-Hermitian topological index that determines the localization of vibrational modes to sample boundaries. At finite frequency, we can also tune the phase angle of the active modulus to produce a direction-dependent bending modulus and control non-Hermitian vibrational properties. Our continuum approach, built on symmetries and conservation laws, could be exploited to design others systems such as synthetic biofilaments and membranes with feed-forward control loops. Mechanical metamaterials can be engineered with properties not possible in ordinary materials. Here the authors demonstrate and study an active metamaterial with self-sensing characteristics that enables odd elastic properties not observed in passive media.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-021-26034-z