Fluid‐Driven Director‐Field Design Enables Versatile Deployment of Multistable Structures

Abstract

Shape‐morphing structures capable of significantly altering shape and volume play a crucial role in diverse applications, ranging from soft robotics to minimally invasive surgery, deployable structures, and space exploration. This article presents an approach to achieve simple and controllable morphing onto multiple stable complex 3D surfaces—a long sought after goal in the field. The method is based on interconnected multistable straw‐like deformable tubes, constrained by rigid links that can be assembled and connected in many different ways. By leveraging the director‐field theory, the links and their assembly process are modeled and designed to reach a variety of desired final operational shapes from a single base‐structure. The use of viscous‐fluid actuation enables precise control and predictable shape‐morphing while facilitating a wide range of configurations through inflation and deflation sequences, all with a single input.

Keywords

• deployable structures
• director‐field theory
• multistability
• viscous flow