Combinatorial 3D Mechanical Metamaterials

We present a class of elastic structures which exhibit 3D-folding motion. Our structures consist of cubic lattices of anisotropic unit cells that can be tiled in a complex combinatorial fashion. We design and 3d-print this complex ordered mechanism, in which we combine elastic hinges and defects to tailor the mechanics of the material. Finally, we use this large design space to encode smart functionalities such as surface patterning and multistability.