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research article

Computational Exploration of Multistable Elastic Knots

Vidulis, Michele  
•
Ren, Yingying  
•
Panetta, Julian
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2023
ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)

We present an algorithmic approach to discover, study, and design multistable elastic knots. Elastic knots are physical realizations of closed curves embedded in 3-space. When endowed with the material thickness and bending resistance of a physical wire, these knots settle into equilibrium states that balance the forces induced by elastic deformation and self-contacts of the wire. In general, elastic knots can have many distinct equilibrium states, i.e. they are multistable mechanical systems. We propose a computational pipeline that combines randomized spatial sampling and physics simulation to efficiently find stable equilibrium states of elastic knots. Leveraging results from knot theory, we run our pipeline on thousands of different topological knot types to create an extensive data set of multistable knots. By applying a series of filters to this data, we discover new transformable knots with interesting geometric and physical properties. A further analysis across knot types reveals geometric and topological patterns, yielding constructive principles that generalize beyond the currently tabulated knot types. We show how multistable elastic knots can be used to design novel deployable structures and engaging recreational puzzles. Several physical prototypes at different scales highlight these applications and validate our simulation.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1145/3592399
Author(s)
Vidulis, Michele  
Ren, Yingying  
Panetta, Julian
Grinspun, Eitan
Pauly, Mark  
Date Issued

2023

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Published in
ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)
Volume

42

Issue

4

Start page

1

End page

15

Subjects

Elastic knots

•

Multistability

•

Physics-based simulation

•

Numerical optimization

•

Computational fabrication

URL

Project page

https://www.epfl.ch/labs/gcm/research-projects/elastic-knots/
Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
GCM  
FunderGrant Number

FNS

514543

Available on Infoscience
May 9, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/197559
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