Bi-stability resistant to fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a micro-mechanical device inspired by muscle power strokes that maintains its snap-through behavior despite environmental fluctuations, demonstrating potential for micro-scale engineering resilience.

Contribution

It presents a novel Brownian snap spring design that resists fluctuations and exhibits criticality, inspired by biological muscle mechanics.

Findings

Device maintains snap-through despite fluctuations

Exhibits criticality at specific parameters

Potential applications in micro-scale engineering

Abstract

We study a simple micro-mechanical device that does not lose its snap-through behavior in an environment dominated by fluctuations. The main idea is to have several degrees of freedom that can cooperatively resist the de-synchronizing effect of random perturbations. As an inspiration we use the power stroke machinery of skeletal muscles, which ensures at sub-micron scales and finite temperatures a swift recovery of an abruptly applied slack. In addition to hypersensitive response at finite temperatures, our prototypical Brownian snap spring also exhibits criticality at special values of parameters which is another potentially interesting property for micro-scale engineering applications.