This thesis describes the fabrication and modification of porous silicon and titania structures for the purposes of energy storage and conversion. The first chapter provides the reader with background information on porous ...

Legged locomotion on flowing ground (e.g., granular media) is unlike locomotion on hard ground because feet experience both solid- and fluid-like forces during surface penetration. Recent bioinspired legged robots display ...

We use inelastic hard sphere molecular dynamics simulations and laboratory experiments to study patterns in vertically oscillated granular layers. The simulations and experiments reveal that phase bubbles spontaneously ...

Our experiments and three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of particles confined to a vertical monolayer by closely spaced frictional walls (sidewalls) yield velocity distributions with non-Gaussian tails and a ...

We present a new description of nonequilibrium square patterns as a harmonically coupled crystal lattice. In a vertically oscillating granular layer, different transverse normal modes of the granular square-lattice pattern ...

Simple mathematical models or ‘templates’ of locomotion have been effective tools in understanding how animals move and have inspired and guided the design of robots that emulate those behaviors. This paper describes a ...