MECH&AE 263F · MAE 263FMechanics of Flexible Structures and Soft Robots
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering · 4 units · Graduate courses (200-299)
Applied introduction to mechanics and modeling of rods, plates, shells, and robots. Rod and shell-like structures appear across wide range of length-scale from carbon nanotubes at microscale to undersea cables at kilometer-scale. Covers algorithms for numerical simulation of such structures, inspired by recent advances in field of computer graphics and machine learning. Specifically, discrete differential geometry and neural ordinary differential equations are used for modeling of highly deformable structures. Such simulations are widely used in movies and video games for animation of hair and clothes. Final project involves design and simulation of soft robot (or any other complex structure agreed upon by instructor and student). Topics include elastic stress-strain relations for rod, plate, and shell elements; equations of equilibrium; discrete differential geometry-based numerical simulation; neural ordinary differential equations.
Letter grading.
When it runs
- Fall 2025
- Fall 2026
Scheduled, not typical — from UCLA’s Schedule of Classes, which publishes Fall 2025 through Spring 2027 and nothing before it.
Requisites
Official UCLA wording
Preparation: programming experience.
BruinTree reads · Preparation
needs reviewconfidence 0.00 · from textBruinTree could not read this requirement — see UCLA’s wording above.
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Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.