Jie Yin

Autonomous maze navigation is appealing yet challenging in soft robotics for exploring priori unknown unstructured environments, as it often requires human-like brain that integrates onboard power, sensors, and control for computational intelligence. Here, we report harnessing both geometric and materials intelligence in liquid crystal elastomer–based self-rolling robots for autonomous escaping from complex multichannel mazes without the need for human-like brain. The soft robot powered by environmental thermal energy has asymmetric geometry with hybrid twisted and helical shapes on two ends. Such geometric asymmetry enables built-in active and sustained self-turning capabilities, unlike its symmetric counterparts in either twisted or helical shapes that only demonstrate transient self-turning through untwisting. Combining self-snapping for motion reflection, it shows unique curved zigzag paths to avoid entrapment in its counterparts, which allows for successful self-escaping from various challenging mazes, including mazes on granular terrains, mazes with narrow gaps, and even mazes with in situ changing layouts.

Smart window is promising to save building energy and reduce carbon emissions. The fast development leads to a high demand for multifunctionality not limited to energy saving, while the material design and fabrication are challenging. Herein, a scalable method is developed for tri‐mode light regulations: thermo‐, mechano‐, and hydro‐/solvato‐chromisms. The film is constructed of a bio‐inspired hierarchical‐structured surface and a functional elastomer base. Through combined experiments and simulations, the triple‐stimuli‐chromic mechanisms of strain‐induced surface structure deformations, wettability‐controlled reflective index matches, and thermal‐responsive nanostructural resonances, respectively are revealed. Besides a good energy‐saving performance, the robust method shows several advantages: 1) independent energy‐saving and privacy functionalities, 2) an additional hydro‐/solvato‐chromic mode to control privacy in extreme circumstances, and 3) designable patterns and colors to meet high aesthetic demand. The work may inspire the future development of multifunctional smart windows and spatio‐temporal light control methods.