Mechanics of Elastoactive Structures

该奖项支持一个研究主动弹性系统的动力学和控制的研究项目。在自然界中，鱼、鸟和其他能够运动的实体在密集的群体中相互作用时，即使没有一个集中的指挥来指导它们，也会表现出复杂的舞蹈。这些复杂的行为在工程领域有着巨大的前景，在那里，成群的微型机器人可以协调它们的行动来完成一项全球性的任务。该项目假设将“无意识”的活动单元连接到弹簧状结构是实现这一愿景的途径。研究活动将展示如何对执行复杂任务的弹性耦合主动单元的装配进行编程，例如“解决迷宫”，尽管它们没有传统的传感或信息处理能力。这项工作将推进我们对主动弹性系统可实现的“机械智能”的基本理解，并可能转化为软机器人领域的新能力。同时，该项目提供了一个简单、模块化和廉价的实验平台，在教学和推广工作中阐明抽象概念，并为研究生和本科生提供跨学科的学习体验。该项目旨在证明我们可以利用弯曲结构来协调和编程随机移动的小型部件。为此，研究人员将设计一个系统，其中活动满足非线性弹性变形。他们将对弹性主动结构进行实验，该结构由连接到活性剂的细长弹性梁组成，并开发理论模型和数值模拟来合理化其力学。这些代理是厘米级刚体微型机器人，利用振动在平面上“行走”。该项目首先关注的是当梁的一端被夹住，另一端被微型机器人加载时观察到的自发自振荡。该系统将用于建立弹性杆的Langevin动力学和Kirchhoff方程耦合的最小模型。该项目下一步将研究当梁的两端被微型机器人加载时形成的“跑线”，导致梁弯曲并在平面上移动。这些跑步者与边界的相互作用，如平面反射，与障碍物的相互作用，以及通过狭缝，将被检查以阐明影响跑步者解决复杂迷宫能力的因素。最后，该项目将探索涉及三个或更多微型机器人的系统，实现奔跑和翻滚运动和波浪传播，从而扩展这些弹性耦合活性剂的操作模式。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a research project that investigates the dynamics and control of active elastic systems. In nature, fish, birds, and other entities capable of movement display complex choreographies when interacting in dense groups, even without a centralized conductor to guide them. These complex behaviors hold great promises in engineering, where crowds of micro-robots could coordinate their actions to complete a global task. This project hypothesizes that linking “mindless” active units to spring-like structures is a pathway for achieving such a vision. The research activities will show how to program assemblies of elastically coupled active units that perform complex tasks, e.g., “solving a maze”, although they have no traditional sensing or information-processing capabilities. This work will advance our fundamental understanding of the “mechanical intelligence” achievable by active elastic systems and could translate into new capabilities in the field of soft robotics. Concurrently, the project provides a simple, modular, and inexpensive experimental platform to illustrate abstract concepts during teaching and outreach efforts and delivers an interdisciplinary learning experience for graduate and undergraduate students. This project aims to demonstrate that we can leverage flexural structures to coordinate and program stochastically moving small-scale components. To this end, the researchers will devise a system where activity meets nonlinear elastic deformations. They will experiment with elasto-active structures comprising long and thin elastic beams connected to active agents and develop theoretical models and numerical simulations to rationalize their mechanics. Those agents are centimetric rigid-bodied micro-robots that use vibration to "walk" across a flat surface. The project first focuses on the spontaneous self-oscillations observed when a beam is clamped on one end and loaded by a micro-robot on the other end. This system will be used to establish a minimal model that couples Langevin dynamics and the Kirchhoff equations for elastic rods. The project will next study the "runners" that form when a beam is loaded by a micro-robot at each end, resulting in the beam buckling and moving across the plane. The interaction of these runners with boundaries, e.g., planar reflection, interaction with obstacles, and passage through a slit, will be examined to elucidate the contributing factors to the runners’ ability to solve complex mazes. Finally, the project will explore systems with three or more micro-bots involved, enabling run-and-tumble motions and wave propagation, thereby expanding the operating modes of these elastically coupled active agents.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.