This paper addresses the problem of reducing the hysteresis found in the actuation of most smart materials. They are divided in two groups: systems with no saturation (e.g. piezoelectric actuators), and systems with saturation (e.g. Shape Memory Actuators). For the control of the rst group the concept of phaser is introduced, an operator which shifts the phase of a periodic signal but keeps its...

Phase change materials (PCM) take advantage of latent heat that can be stored or released from a material over a narrow temperature range. PCM possesses the ability to change their state with a certain temperature range. These materials absorb energy during the heating process as phase change takes place and release energy to the environment in the phase change range during a reverse cooling pr...

We present a distributed algorithm for a swarm of active particles to camouflage in an environment. Each particle is equipped with sensing, computation and communication, allowing the system to take color and gradient information from the environment and self-organize into an appropriate pattern. Current artificial camouflage systems are either limited to static patterns, which are adapted for ...