Method of fabricating programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device, untethered programmable and/or reprogrammable, in particular 3d, magnetic soft device, method of encoding a programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device, and use of a programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device

A method of fabricating a programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device having a Young's modulus of less than 500 MPa in one or more parts of the device, the method comprising the steps of:

• forming a composite of base material and magnetic elements distributed within said base material;
• shaping the composite to have a desired final shape;
• heating the composite while applying or not applying a magnetic field at the composite;
• and
• cooling the composite while applying a magnetic field at the composite, with the step of heating comprising heating the composite to a temperature close to or above the Curie temperature of said magnetic elements.

A method of encoding a programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device manufactured by a method of fabricating a programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device having a Young's modulus of less than 500 MPa in one or more parts of the device, the method comprising the steps of:

• forming a composite of base material and magnetic elements distributed within said base material;
• shaping the composite to have a desired final shape;
• heating the composite while applying or not applying a magnetic field at the composite;
• and
• cooling the composite while applying a magnetic field at the composite, with the step of heating comprising heating the composite to a temperature close to or above the Curie temperature of said magnetic elements;
• respectively of encoding an untethered programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device having one or more parts with Young's modulus of less than 500 MPa, the programmable and/or reprogrammable 3D magnetic soft device comprising a body formed of a composite, the composite comprising a base material and magnetic elements distributed within said base material, wherein the body has an arbitrary magnetization profile, with different regions of the body having different magnetization profiles, wherein the information encoded into the programmable and/or reprogrammable 3D magnetic soft device comprises shape changing instructions for changing a shape of at least some of the regions of the body relative to one another on application of an external field, the method of encoding comprising the steps of:
• heating the composite to a temperature close to or above the Curie temperature of the magnetic elements distributed therein;
• cooling the composite;
• and
• re-orienting magnetic domains of the magnetic elements by applying an external magnetic field during cooling, or during both heating and cooling.

Method of using a programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device manufactured by a method of fabricating a programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device having a Young's modulus of less than 500 MPa in one or more parts of the device, the method comprising the steps of:

• forming a composite of base material and magnetic elements distributed within said base material;
• shaping the composite to have a desired final shape;
• heating the composite while applying or not applying a magnetic field at the composite;
• and
• cooling the composite while applying a magnetic field at the composite, with the step of heating comprising heating the composite to a temperature close to or above the Curie temperature of said magnetic elements;
• respectively of encoding an untethered programmable and/or reprogrammable magnetic soft device having one or more parts with Young's modulus of less than 500 MPa, the programmable and/or reprogrammable 3D magnetic soft device comprising a body formed of a composite, the composite comprising a base material and magnetic elements distributed within said base material, wherein the body has an arbitrary magnetization profile, with different regions of the body having different magnetization profiles, wherein the information encoded into the programmable and/or reprogrammable 3D magnetic soft device comprises shape changing instructions for changing a shape of at least some of the regions of the body relative to one another on application of an external field as at least one of a reconfigurable gripper, a programmable and/or reprogrammable acoustic wave guide, a programmable and/or reprogrammable electronic circuit, a programmable and/or reprogrammable antenna, programmable and/or reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials, programmable and/or reprogrammable wearable pieces of equipment, adaptive medical robots and combinations of the foregoing.