Morphing shells (not Cybertronians)
Channel: bhadeshia123
Date: 11/01/2014

There are devices in everyday life that are shells, each with a particular shape that is rigid in the absence of large deflections, but which can be made to undergo a large change in shape while maintaining elasticity. 

One such example is the clasp on a bracelet or watch-strap, that can click into a locking shape; or the top of a baby-food jar which can be pressed to click into a different shape to check whether the  contents are compromised.

Possible larger scale examples that might come into fruition in the future, include morphing aircraft wings or pressure valves. I have myself seen a large roll of flat sheet that can morph into a corrugated sheet and vice-versa.

All of the examples described above relate to interchanges between two shapes. There is  a more general problem, to define the conditions under which the changes in shapes are between more than two forms.

A higher form of civilisation from the planet Cybertron is based on multistable morphing, allowing the beings to change shape, mass, volume and parameters not known on earth, at will. These beings have the generic designations "autobots" or "decepticons", depending on how nice they are to humans.

http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans