Coming up next
2026-03-05 - 13:30 @ EM 1.17 (Gorleaus Building)
SLAM seminar: Yao Du
Title: Learning and control in active metamaterials
Abstract: Living matter achieves oscillation, adaptation, and locomotion without centralized control. In this talk, I will present two advances that bring such autonomy to robotic metamaterials. First, we discover non-reciprocal buckling in active beams, experimentally demonstrating critical exceptional dynamics that produce self-sustained oscillations and enable functions such as crawling and digging. Second, we develop self-learning metamaterials with decentralized memory that can locally learn, forget, and reconfigure shape changes to perform targeted dynamics. Together, these results demenstrate non-reciprocity, criticality, and physical learning as new design principles for multifunctional, adaptive active materials.