Reconfigurable Laminates

Laminates that can be reconfigured for tunable mechancial properties

This project is an innovation of tradtional lamination process for making low-profile foldable robots with tunable material or mechanical properties.

Conceptual design of reconfigurable laminates using simple rigid and soft materials (and adhesives). (a) A layered channel is made with seperable top and bottom layers. (b) Variable laminate stiffness based on changeable layer alignment states. (c) A joint actuator based via a tendon layer (like muscles). (d) A bistable joint lock can be fabricated using buckling and snap through of the soft layer parts. All elements are to contribute low-profile and reconfigurable robotic building blocks for multifunctional usages.

Publications

  1. M. Jiang and N. Gravish, “Reconfigurable laminates enable multifunctional robotic building blocks,” Smart Mater. Struct., vol. 30, no. 3, p. 035005, Feb. 2021. [pdf]
  2. M. Jiang and N. Gravish, “Sliding-Layer Laminates: A Robotic Material Enabling Robust and Adaptable Undulatory Locomotion,” in 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct. 2018, pp. 5944–5951. [pdf]