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Autori principali: Chen, Kai Jun, Catrambone, Catherine, Sowinski, Christopher, Mukobi, Jacob, Andreacchio, Enzo, Chew, Enquan, Morland, Alexandre, Sakovsky, Maria
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06442
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author Chen, Kai Jun
Catrambone, Catherine
Sowinski, Christopher
Mukobi, Jacob
Andreacchio, Enzo
Chew, Enquan
Morland, Alexandre
Sakovsky, Maria
author_facet Chen, Kai Jun
Catrambone, Catherine
Sowinski, Christopher
Mukobi, Jacob
Andreacchio, Enzo
Chew, Enquan
Morland, Alexandre
Sakovsky, Maria
contents Reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials, composed of a lattice of discretely adaptive elements, are emerging as a promising platform for mechanical intelligence. To operate in unknown environments, such structures must go beyond passive responsiveness and embody traits of mechanical intelligence: sensing, computing, adaptation, and memory. However, current approaches fall short, as computation of the required adaptation in response to changes in environmental stimuli must be pre-computed ahead of operation. Here we present a physical learning approach that harnesses the structure's mechanics to perform computation and drive adaptation. The desired global deformation response of nonlinear metamaterials with adaptive stiffness is physically encoded as local strain targets across internal adaptive elements. The structure adapts by iteratively interacting with the environment and updating its stiffness distribution using a model-free algorithm. The resulting system demonstrates autonomous real-time adaptation (~seconds) to previously unknown loading conditions without pre-computation. Physical learning inherently accounts for manufacturing imperfections and is robust to sensor noise and structural damage. We also demonstrate scalability to complex metamaterial structures and different metamaterial architectures. By uniting sensing, computation, and actuation in a mechanical framework, this work makes key strides towards embodying the traits of mechanical intelligence into adaptive structures. We expect our approach to open pathways towards in-situ adaptation to unknown environment for applications in hypersonic flight, adaptive robotics, and exploration in extreme environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_06442
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Physical learning in reprogrammable metamaterials for adaptation to unknown environments
Chen, Kai Jun
Catrambone, Catherine
Sowinski, Christopher
Mukobi, Jacob
Andreacchio, Enzo
Chew, Enquan
Morland, Alexandre
Sakovsky, Maria
Applied Physics
Reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials, composed of a lattice of discretely adaptive elements, are emerging as a promising platform for mechanical intelligence. To operate in unknown environments, such structures must go beyond passive responsiveness and embody traits of mechanical intelligence: sensing, computing, adaptation, and memory. However, current approaches fall short, as computation of the required adaptation in response to changes in environmental stimuli must be pre-computed ahead of operation. Here we present a physical learning approach that harnesses the structure's mechanics to perform computation and drive adaptation. The desired global deformation response of nonlinear metamaterials with adaptive stiffness is physically encoded as local strain targets across internal adaptive elements. The structure adapts by iteratively interacting with the environment and updating its stiffness distribution using a model-free algorithm. The resulting system demonstrates autonomous real-time adaptation (~seconds) to previously unknown loading conditions without pre-computation. Physical learning inherently accounts for manufacturing imperfections and is robust to sensor noise and structural damage. We also demonstrate scalability to complex metamaterial structures and different metamaterial architectures. By uniting sensing, computation, and actuation in a mechanical framework, this work makes key strides towards embodying the traits of mechanical intelligence into adaptive structures. We expect our approach to open pathways towards in-situ adaptation to unknown environment for applications in hypersonic flight, adaptive robotics, and exploration in extreme environments.
title Physical learning in reprogrammable metamaterials for adaptation to unknown environments
topic Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06442