Programmable Matter
Systems of discrete or continuous elements that reconfigure into different shapes and properties.
Recent progress in 4D printing: materials, methods and applications
This review synthesizes how 4D printing couples additive methods with stimulus-responsive materials—especially shape-memory polymers—to achieve programmed, time-dependent shape and property changes, while noting reliability and scalability
Function, Complexity and Thermodynamics in Adaptive and Intelligent Soft Matter Systems: An Information-Theoretical Framework
An information-channel framework quantifies responsive, adaptive, and intelligent soft matter using three metrics and benchmark planes tied to thermodynamics and noise.
Logarithmic-Time Geodesically Convex Decomposition in Programmable Matter
It presents an O(log n)-round algorithm to decompose arbitrary amoebot programmable-matter structures into O(|H|) geodesically convex regions using reconfigurable circuits.
Thermomechanical Modelling and Shape Prediction in 4D Printing Using FEA
A thermomechanical FEA approach is used to simulate and plan shape morphing in 4D-printed two-layer and more complex structures.
Reprogrammable metamaterial robot with embodied versatile computation and mechanical intelligence
A reprogrammable metamaterial robot is presented as combining versatile computation with mechanical intelligence.
Fire ant rafts offer principles and rules for synthetic programmable morphing matter
This study explores how fire ant rafts can inform the design of synthetic programmable morphing materials through emergent collective dynamics.
Single-material 4D-printed shape-morphing structures via spatially patterned strain trapping
A single-step, single-material 4D printing approach uses spatially patterned strain trapping to program one-way, spatially controlled shape morphing without secondary post-programming.
Sublinear-Time Reconfiguration of Programmable Matter with Joint Movements
The paper shows sublinear-time centralized reconfiguration of geometric amoebot programmable matter using joint parallel movements, including universal reconfiguration to a line segment in O(√n log n) rounds.
Sliding Cubes in Parallel
The paper studies parallel reconfiguration of sliding cube modules for programmable matter and proves strong NP-hardness and approximation hardness results for deciding feasible and optimal makespans.
DiffeoMorph: Learning to Morph 3D Shapes Using Differentiable Agent-Based Simulations
DiffeoMorph is an end-to-end differentiable method that learns agent-based morphogenesis rules to transform minimally patterned starts into target 3D shapes using an invariant Zernike-based shape-matching loss.
Programmable Telescopic Soft Pneumatic Actuators for Deployable and Shape Morphing Soft Robots
Programmable Telescopic Soft Pneumatic Actuators (PTSPAs) use a parameterized geometry generator and systematic parameter exploration to enable deployable, shape-morphing soft robot locomotion in confined spaces.
Structural and Compositional Complexities of Hierarchical Self-Assembly: a Hypergraph Approach
A hypergraph-based Blocks & Bonds formalism plus a compact Structure Code enables practical, complexity-aware description and inverse design of programmable self-assembled architectures.
Dynamic shaping of multi-touch stimuli by programmable acoustic metamaterial
A programmable acoustic metamaterial is used to dynamically shape multi-touch stimuli.
Rotary 4D Printing of Programmable Metamaterials on Sustainable 4D Mandrel
A rotary 4D printing workflow fabricates modular, multi-material programmable mechanical metamaterials on a shape-morphing mandrel, enabling programmable stiffness and multi-DOF shape recovery.
Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Programmable Origami Metamaterials with Controlled Deployment
A data-free physics-informed neural network enables inverse design of conical Kresling origami metamaterials with programmable multistable energy barriers and controlled, sequential deployment validated on prototypes.
Generative Inversion for Property-Targeted Materials Design: Application to Shape Memory Alloys
A GAN-inversion framework coupled with property prediction enables property-targeted inverse design of high-performance NiTi-based shape memory alloys, validated by experimental synthesis.
On the Shape Containment Problem within the Amoebot Model with Reconfigurable Circuits
It studies how amoebot particles in programmable matter can contain a desired shape without movement, proving runtime bounds and giving efficient algorithms for specific shape classes.
Tile Reconfiguration by a Finite Automaton
A deterministic finite-automaton agent can reconfigure passive tiles on a triangular lattice to form specified target shapes, with worst-case optimal and polynomial-time algorithms.
Single Bridge Formation in Self-Organizing Particle Systems
A mathematical analysis shows that, given strong directional and neighbor-count preferences, self-organizing particles almost certainly form exactly one bridge without central coordination.
Polylogarithmic Time Algorithms for Shortest Path Forests in Programmable Matter
The paper proposes distributed algorithms for shortest path forests in a programmable-matter amoebot model with reconfigurable circuits, achieving polylogarithmic round complexities.
Deterministic Leader Election for Stationary Programmable Matter with Common Direction
With a common agreed direction but no chirality, the paper shows deterministic stationary leader election is possible in the Amoebot model, while explicit termination is impossible.
Efficient Shape Formation by 3D Hybrid Programmable Matter: An Algorithm for Low Diameter Intermediate Structures
An algorithm for 3D hybrid programmable matter reconfigures connected passive tiles into an icicle intermediate shape, reducing structure diameter with O(n^3) steps.
Printing Mosaics of Magnetically Programmed Liquid Crystal Directors for Reversibly Morphing Soft Matter
A DLP printing system with a reorientable magnetic field enables magnetically programmed alignment in liquid crystal elastomers, producing reversibly morphing structures with >30% thermal actuation.
Asynchronous Silent Programmable Matter: Line Formation
It proposes an optimal distributed algorithm for line formation in the SILBOT programmable-matter model under asynchronous, silent, oblivious particle behavior.