Tristable Kirigami Architecture for Mechanical Logic

Shape-morphing structures that could encode memory and perform logic operations are of particular interest to build materials-based physical intelligence and soft robots. To embed memory and perform computing in a mechanical system, the building blocks of the system may contain multiple sets of tunable metastable states. Recently, bistable structures have been employed to show the potential application to serve as two-bits mechanical memory and mechanical logic gates through snapping-through instability. However, the design of various logic gates requires different designs of structural configurations. To simplify the design process, we introduce a single kirigami-inspired tristable architecture that not only encodes mechanical memory but also performs fundamental logic computing. Compared with bistable structures which usually process a double-well potential, this kirigami architecture processes a triple-well potential. Switching between the two local stable states through the additional metastable state produces a variety of mechanical deformations giving rise to multiple fundamental logic operations. Through experiments, simulations, and modeling, we demonstrate the fundamental mechanics and functionalities to leverage the communicative snapping of tristable kirigami architecture for potential applications in mechanical computing.