Mechanical logic and information processing in flexible mechanical metamaterials

Mechanical metamaterials have in recent years been the focus of significant interest because of their broadly tunable properties that can be controlled via a few geometric parameters rather than via complex material properties. In addition to enabling tunability of a number of conventional mechanical properties, such as stiffness, or dynamic properties, such as band gaps, mechanical metamaterials can also be used to perform combinational logic and simple information processing operations. In this work, we describe challenges and opportunities in using flexible mechanical metamaterials to process information. We specifically look at systems with highly nonlinear mechanisms, such that small changes in geometric parameters can cause large changes in behavior. We then consider the use of stimuli-responsive materials such as liquid crystal elastomers to enable these systems to receive information from their environment, and describe a few practical strategies for using these to create autonomous behaviors in mechanical metamaterials.