Deformation and mechanics of a pulvinus-inspired material

• Tadrist Loïc
• Mammadi Younes
• Diperi Julien
• Linares Jean-Marc

• Pneumatic cellular material
• Deformations
• Pulvinus
• Bioinspiration
• Biomimetics

Mimosa Pudica rapidly folds leaves when touched. Motion is created by pulvini, "the plant muscles" that allow plants to produce various complex motion. Plants rely on local control of the turgor pressure to create on-demand motion. In this paper, the mechanics of a cellular material inspired from pulvinus of Mimosa Pudica is studied. First, the manufacturing process of a cell-controllable material is described. Its deformation behaviour when pressured is tested, focussing on 3 pressure patterns of reference. The deformations are modelled based on the minimisation of elastic energy framework. Depending on pressurisation pattern and magnitude, reversible buckling-induced motion may occur.