Three-dimensional (3D) mesostructures that can reversibly change their geometries and thereby their functionalities are promising for a wide range of applications. Despite intensive studies, the lack of fundamental understanding of the highly nonlinear multistable states existing in these structures has significantly hindered the development of reconfigurable systems that can realize rapid, well-controlled shape changes. Herein we exploit systematic energy landscape analysis of deformable 3D mesostructures to tailor their multistable states and least energy reconfiguration paths. We employ a discrete shell model and minimum energy pathway methods to establish design phase diagrams for a controlled number of stable states and their energy-efficient reconfiguration paths by varying essential geometry and material parameters. Concurrently, our experiments show that 3D mesostructures assembled from ferromagnetic composite thin films of diverse geometries can be rapidly reconfigured among their multistable states in a remote, on-demand fashion by using a portable magnet, with the configuration of each stable state well maintained after the removal of the external magnetic field. The number of stable states and reconfigurable paths observed in experiments are in excellent agreement with computational predictions. In addition, we demonstrate a wide breadth of applications including reconfigurable 3D light emitting systems, remotely-controlled release of particles from a multistable structure, and 3D structure arrays that can form desired patterns following the written path of a magnetic “pen”. Our results represent a critical step towards the rational design and development of reconfigurable structures for applications including soft robotics, multifunctional deployable devices, and many others.

三维 (3D) 细观结构可以可逆地改变其几何形状，从而使其功能具有广泛的应用前景。尽管进行了深入研究，但对这些结构中存在的高度非线性多稳态缺乏基本了解，这严重阻碍了可实现快速、可控形状变化的可重构系统的发展。在这里，我们利用可变形 3D 细观结构的系统能量景观分析来定制它们的多稳态和最小能量重构路径。我们采用离散壳模型和最小能量路径方法，通过改变基本几何形状和材料参数，为受控数量的稳定状态及其节能重构路径建立设计相图。同时，我们的实验表明，由不同几何形状的铁磁复合薄膜组装而成的 3D 细观结构可以通过使用便携式磁体以远程、按需的方式在其多稳态之间快速重新配置，并且每个稳定状态的配置在去除后都能很好地保持外磁场。在实验中观察到的稳定状态和可重构路径的数量与计算预测非常一致。此外，我们展示了广泛的应用，包括可重新配置的 3D 发光系统、从多稳态结构中远程控制粒子释放，以及可以按照磁性“笔”的书写路径形成所需图案的 3D 结构阵列。