{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.01790710688304421, 'fraction_numerical': 0.001119194180190263, 'mean_word_length': 5.6716417910447765, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Harnessing transition waves to realize deployable structures

Significance From foldable chairs and umbrellas to tents and solar panels, many structures are capable of quickly changing their shape and therefore, function. The design of these deployable structures poses two main challenges. First, transformation needs to be reliable and autonomous, and second, systems have to be stable and locked in place in the deployed state. Using a combination of experiments and analyses, we demonstrate that bistable linkages and transition waves provide a powerful platform for realizing deployable structures. We first carefully design the bistable joints so that the transition wave propagates through the entire linkage, transforming the initial straight structure into a curved one. Then, we use these elements as building blocks to create deployable three-dimensional structures of arbitrary shape. Transition waves that sequentially switch bistable elements from one stable configuration to another have received significant interest in recent years not only because of their rich physics but also, for their potential applications, including unidirectional propagation, energy harvesting, and mechanical computation. Here, we exploit the propagation of transition waves in a bistable one-dimensional (1D) linkage as a robust mechanism to realize structures that can be quickly deployed. We first use a combination of experiments and analyses to show that, if the bistable joints are properly designed, transition waves can propagate throughout the entire structure and transform the initial straight configuration into a curved one. We then demonstrate that such bistable linkages can be used as building blocks to realize deployable three-dimensional (3D) structures of arbitrary shape.