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Abstract In recent decades, origami has been explored to aid in the design of engineering structures. These structures span multiple scales and have been demonstrated to be used toward various areas such as aerospace, metamaterial, biomedical, robotics, and architectural applications. Conventionally, origami or deployable structures have been actuated by hands, motors, or pneumatic actuators, which can result in heavy or bulky structures. On the other hand, active materials, which reconfigure in response to external stimulus, eliminate the need for external mechanical loads and bulky actuation systems. Thus, in recent years, active materials incorporated with deployable structures have shown promise for remote actuation of light weight, programmable origami. In this review, active materials such as shape memory polymers (SMPs) and alloys (SMAs), hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), magnetic soft materials (MSMs), and covalent adaptable network (CAN) polymers, their actuation mechanisms, as well as how they have been utilized for active origami and where these structures are applicable is discussed. Additionally, the state‐of‐the‐art fabrication methods to construct active origami are highlighted. The existing structural modeling strategies for origami, the constitutive models used to describe active materials, and the largest challenges and future directions for active origami research are summarized. 

Abstract Fabricating polymeric composites with desirable characteristics for electronic applications is a complex and costly process. Digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing emerges as a promising technique for manufacturing intricate structures. In this study, polymeric samples are fabricated with a conductivity difference exceeding three orders of magnitude in various portions of a part by employing grayscale DLP (g‐DLP) single‐vat single‐cure 3D printing deliberate resin design. This is realized through the manipulation of light intensity during the curing process. Specifically, the rational resin design with added lithium ions results in the polymer cured under the maximum UV‐light intensity exhibiting higher electrical resistance. Conversely, sections that are only partially cured retains uncured monomers, serving as a medium that facilitates ion mobility, consequently leading to higher conductivity. The versatility of g‐DLP allows precise control of light intensity in different regions during the printing process. This characteristic opens up possibilities for applications, notably the low‐cost, facile, and rapid production of complex electrical circuits and sensors. The utilization of this technique makes it feasible to fabricate materials with tailored conductivity and functionality, providing an innovative pathway to advance the accelerated and facile creation of sophisticated electronic devices. 

Abstract Liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) are appealing candidates among active materials for 4D printing, due to their reversible, programmable and rapid actuation capabilities. Recent progress has been made on direct ink writing (DIW) or Digital Light Processing (DLP) to print LCEs with certain actuation. However, it remains a challenge to achieve complicated structures, such as spatial lattices with large actuation, due to the limitation of printing LCEs on the build platform or the previous layer. Herein, a novel method to 4D print freestanding LCEs on‐the‐fly by using laser‐assisted DIW with an actuation strain up to −40% is proposed. This process is further hybridized with the DLP method for optional structural or removable supports to create active 3D architectures in a one‐step additive process. Various objects, including hybrid active lattices, active tensegrity, an actuator with tunable stability, and 3D spatial LCE lattices, can be additively fabricated. The combination of DIW‐printed functionally freestanding LCEs with the DLP‐printed supporting structures thus provides new design freedom and fabrication capability for applications including soft robotics, smart structures, active metamaterials, and smart wearable devices. 

Origami folding and thin structure buckling are intensively studied for structural transformations with large packing ratio for various biomedical, robotic, and aerospace applications. The folding of circular rings has shown bistable snap‐through deformation under simple twisting motion and demonstrates a large area change to 11% of its undeformed configuration. Motivated by the large area change and the self‐guided deformation through snap‐folding, it is intended to design ring origami assemblies with unprecedented packing ratios. Herein, through finite‐element analysis, snap‐folding behaviors of single ring with different geometries (circular, elliptical, rounded rectangular, and rounded triangular shapes) are studied for ring origami assemblies for functional foldable structures. Geometric parameters' effects on the foldability, stability, and the packing ratio are investigated and are validated experimentally. With different rings as basic building blocks, the folding of ring origami assemblies including linear‐patterned rounded rectangular rings, radial‐patterned elliptical rings, and 3D crossing circular rings is further experimentally demonstrated, which show significant packing ratios of 7% and 2.5% of the initial areas, and 0.3% of the initial volume, respectively. It is envisioned that the reported snap‐folding of origami rings will provide alternative strategies to design foldable/deployable structures and devices with reliable self‐guided deformation and large area change. 

Abstract Mechanical metamaterials are architected manmade materials that allow for unique behaviors not observed in nature, making them promising candidates for a wide range of applications. Existing metamaterials lack tunability as their properties can only be changed to a limited extent after the fabrication. Herein, a new magneto‐mechanical metamaterial is presented that allows great tunability through a novel concept of deformation mode branching. The architecture of this new metamaterial employs an asymmetric joint design using hard‐magnetic soft active materials that permits two distinct actuation modes (bending and folding) under opposite‐direction magnetic fields. The subsequent application of mechanical compression leads to the deformation mode branching where the metamaterial architecture transforms into two distinctly different shapes, which exhibit very different deformations and enable great tunability in properties such as mechanical stiffness and acoustic bandgaps. Furthermore, this metamaterial design can be incorporated with magnetic shape memory polymers with global stiffness tunability, which also allows for the global shift of the acoustic behaviors. The combination of magnetic and mechanical actuations, as well as shape memory effects, impart wide tunable properties to a new paradigm of metamaterials.