The shape change in soft materials is a growing and innovative topic of research. Controlling the way materials deform have several important implications in engineering science and technology. In particular, small organisms such plants are able to realize shape shifting mechanisms which are fast change of shapes. These mechanisms can be replicated to design innovative soft robots and smart actuators. The theoretical modeling of such mechanisms in anisotropic or inhomogeneous thin shells is very important to understand how design such devices and the role of the key parameters.
The innovative characters of the research are both in the topic and the investigation methods set up by the proposer. In particular, the modeling of swelling and de-hydration processes for materials such as hydrogels is still very hard to tackle and require advanced technical skills. The expected impact of our research is the improvement of the knowledge of instabilities mechanisms in shape-shifting problems due to the solutions of complex models which are not yet fully investigated. In particular, design the inhomogeneity and/or the anisotropy of the shell will drive the instability mechanism and the high power mechanism. A model able to predict and then design such mechanisms will be useful for a great variety of applications which include soft robots and smart actuators.