Entangled Multistable Origami with Reprogrammable Stiffness Amplification and Damping

Abstract Multistability is often harnessed in mechanical metamaterials to achieve remarkable characteristics such as shape‐shifting, energy dissipation, and stiffness tuning. Existing multistable metamaterials typically consist of slender geometric constituents, such as inclined struts or shallow shells, that are laterally constrained by stiff local confinements, providing a sufficiently high energy barrier for state transition. Besides increasing weight, a rigid confinement embedded within the deformable body of a metamaterial thwarts the shape‐shifting capacity within a narrow range. Here, a class of origami‐inspired metamaterials is presented that eliminates the need for lateral confinements and attains multistable reconfigurations accompanied by stiffness amplification and energy dissipation. Their hallmark is the emergence of spatial collisions among entangled panels that hinder their lateral motion during reconfiguration. The repeated interactions between entangled unit cells, combined with the synergistic interplay of interacting instabilities, create a nonlinear mechanical signature. This phenomenon is characterized by increasing resistance to cyclic reconfiguration and remarkable mechanical damping, making it suitable for applications that require energy dissipation, vibration suppression, and shock absorption.