Non-reciprocal robotic metamaterials

Non-reciprocal transmission of motion is potentially highly beneficial to a wide range of applications, ranging from wave guiding to shock and vibration damping and energy harvesting. To date, large levels of non-reciprocity have been realized using broken spatial or temporal symmetries, yet mostly in the vicinity of resonances, bandgaps or using nonlinearities, thereby non-reciprocal transmission remains limited to narrow ranges of frequencies or input magnitudes and sensitive to attenuation. Here, we create a robotic mechanical metamaterials wherein we use local control loops to break reciprocity at the level of the interactions between the unit cells. We show theoretically and experimentally that…

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  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

  Award: NWO-680-47- 445