Programming evolution of geometry in shape-morphing sheets via spatio-temporal activation

Shape-programmed sheets morph from one surface into another upon activation by stimuli such as illumination and have attracted much interest for their potential engineering applications, especially in soft robotics. Complex shape changes can be achieved by patterning a simple local active deformation (e.g. isotropic swelling), to generate differential growth. Usually the material itself is designed—for example, by patterning a molecular director—such that a particular shape change occurs upon exposure to a spatially uniform stimulus. A limitation of this paradigm is that typically only one target geometry can be attained as the stimulus is adjusted. Here we show that this limitation can be overcome by patterning the stimulus itself, thereby exercising spatio-temporal control over local deformation magnitudes. Thus, a single physical sample can be induced to traverse a continuous family of target geometries, opening the door to precise shape adjustments, new functionalities and designable nonreciprocal loops in shape space. We illustrate these possibilities with examples including active parabolic reflectors, chiral flow guides and bending channels. Finding the necessary patterns of activation involves solving families of metric inverse problems; we solve these by reduction to ODEs in an axisymmetric setting, then present a novel numerical scheme to solve them in generality.