Dynamic driving enables independent control of material bits for targeted memory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dynamic control method for mechanical metamaterials with bistable elements, enabling single-cycle, targeted memory writing by leveraging drive sensitivity and control space orbits.

Contribution

It presents a novel dynamic control strategy that allows independent, rapid access to any memory state in bistable mechanical systems using global drive cycles.

Findings

Successfully constructed a five-bit memory system.

Demonstrated writing all 26 uppercase ASCII letters.

Achieved single-cycle, targeted state switching.

Abstract

Mechanical metamaterials with bistable elements can store vast amounts of information, but writing these memories requires impractical local control or lengthy multi-cycle protocols. We overcome this limitation with a dynamic control strategy that accesses any configuration in a single global drive cycle by leveraging the system's sensitivity to the drive and its time derivatives. We realize this strategy with bistable beams on a rotating platform, where drive cycles become orbits in a control space of angular velocity and acceleration. State changes occur when these orbits cross switching thresholds, which we rationally design so that each state can be accessed by a single drive orbit. We construct a five-bit system and demonstrate its full addressability by selecting drive orbits that write all 26 uppercase letters of the alphabet in ASCII representation. This dynamic control paradigm offers a general route towards smart, remotely operated devices across various physical domains.