Stiffness adjustment is essential to enhance the environment adaptability of many machines and soft robots. In this paper, a principle for stiffness variation based on fiber-reinforced structure matching (meshing) was proposed. By this proposed method, a flexible flat structure can change its stiffness more readily compared to existing approaches. The basic principle is that two soft laminates made of fibrous composites have complementary shapes that can interlock with each other in a controlled way; the resulting structure will be soft when the two laminates separate, but rigid when the two laminates interlock with each other. Therefore, the stiffness of a structure can be adjusted by altering between the separated and matched states. The principle was validated by a matching structure composed of two commercial toothed belts, which can change its stiffness up to 40 times just by a small vacuum pressure of 0.4 atm.

中文翻译：

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基于纤维与复合结构匹配的刚度变化原理

刚度调节对于增强许多机器和软机器人的环境适应性至关重要。本文提出了一种基于纤维增强结构匹配（啮合）的刚度变化原理。通过这种提议的方法，与现有方法相比，柔性平面结构可以更容易地改变其刚度。基本原理是，两个由纤维复合材料制成的软层压材料具有互补的形状，可以相互控制地互锁。当两个层压板分开时，最终的结构将是柔软的，但是当两个层压板互锁时，最终的结构将是刚性的。因此，可以通过在分离状态和匹配状态之间改变来调节结构的刚度。该原理已通过由两条商用齿形皮带组成的匹配结构得到验证，