Multistability is the phenomenon of multiple coexistent stable states, which are highly sensitive to perturbations, initial conditions, system parameters, etc. Multistability has been widely found in various scientific areas including biology, physics, chemistry, climatology, sociology, and ecology. In a number of systems where multistability naturally exists, it is found to be undesirable because of the involuntary interwell or chaotic switching among dynamical states that disorder the systems and cause instability. However, in recent decades, researchers have identified numerous benefits of multistability and have devoted research efforts to artificially creating it for a wide range of applications, including signal processing, energy harvesting, composite structures and metamaterials, and micro-/nano-electromechanical actuators. This is because of the unique characteristics of multistability, such as rich potential structure, interwell dynamics, broadband nature, and alleviation of the input energy to sustain stable states, which may play different advantageous roles depending on their applications. In this review, we introduce how researchers create the key of multistability and utilize it to open a new world of theories, materials, and structures. We concentrate on developing histories from bistability to multistability in several potential applications. Different designs of digital and physical multistable systems, and their modeling, performance quantifiers, advantageous mechanisms, and improved techniques are reviewed and discussed in depth. Furthermore, we summarize the key issues and challenges of application-oriented multistability and the corresponding possible solutions, from the phenomenon itself to its realistic implementation. Finally, we provide the prospects for future studies on multistability in more developing research fields.

多稳态是多种稳定状态共存的现象，对扰动、初始条件、系统参数等高度敏感。多稳态在生物学、物理学、化学、气候学、社会学和生态学等各个科学领域中被广泛发现。在自然存在多重稳定性的许多系统中，由于井间或动态状态之间的无意识切换会扰乱系统并导致不稳定，因此发现这是不希望的。然而，近几十年来，研究人员已经确定了多稳定性的众多好处，并致力于人工创造它的广泛应用，包括信号处理、能量收集、复合结构和超材料，以及微/纳米机电致动器。这是因为多稳态具有独特的特性，例如丰富的势结构、井间动力学、宽带特性以及减轻输入能量以维持稳定状态，根据其应用可以发挥不同的优势作用。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了研究人员如何创造多稳定性的关键并利用它打开理论、材料和结构的新世界。我们专注于在几个潜在应用中开发从双稳态到多稳态的历史。对数字和物理多稳态系统的不同设计及其建模、性能量化、有利机制和改进技术进行了深入审查和讨论。此外，我们总结了面向应用的多稳定性的关键问题和挑战以及相应的可能解决方案，从现象本身到其现实实现。最后，我们为更多发展中的研究领域的多稳定性研究提供了前景。