Non-Commuting Mechanical Metamaterials

Strategies for programmable metamaterial design need to be sensitive to the order of input signals. Here, we introduce a non-commuting mechanical metamaterial that consists of a quasi-1D chain of weakly symmetry-broken beams. We demonstrate, via simulations and experiments, that its response depends on the order of external actuation. Our work opens a new route to mechanical memory and reprogrammable metamaterials.