Micron sized kirigami robots - Design and inverse design*

While it is well known how to design the tesselation of a single Kirigami sheet such that it transforms into one target shape, here we propose to design a sheet that can transform into any desired shape for applications in in robotics. Specifically, we study foldable microscopic sheets that change their shape in response to digitized electronic signals.
The sheets are composed of periodic structures of repeating unit cells. Each cell is itself comprised of individual rigid panels connected by actuatable bending hinges. To realize pluripotency in these sheets we must endow them with an appropriate range of degrees of freedom such that they can transform into any shape but still maintain a rigid form. We conjecture that these conditions are met when the sheets are near the isostatic limit. To test this conjecture we derive an analytical inverse design method at the thermodynamic limit, and employ numerical optimization to design finite sized shape shifting sheets. I will then describe our efforts at making and actuating such sheets at the microscale.