An algorithm that shapes objects to cause them to roll down ramps following a desired path

Phys.org  August 12, 2023
The rolling paths of oloids, sphericons, polycons, platonicons and two-circle rollers are all sinusoid-like and their diversity ends there. To find out if a more general problem is solvable, an international team of researchers (South Korea, Switzerland) developed an algorithm to design such bodies (they called ‘trajectoids’) and validated these designs experimentally by three-dimensionally printing the computed shapes and tracking their rolling paths, including those that close onto themselves such that the body’s centre of mass moves intermittently uphill. According to the researchers the existence of trajectoids for most paths has unexpected implications for quantum and classical optics, as the dynamics of qubits, spins and light polarization can be exactly mapped to trajectoids and their paths… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE   1  ,  2  

Rolling paths and trajectoid shapes. Credit: Nature volume 620, pages310–315 (2023)