Sequential snapping of hysterons in a biholey metamaterial

We show that driven mechanical metamaterials exhibit complex pathways when they contain bistable switches. Here we embed a number of such switches – slender beams – in a biholey metamaterial, and observe and manipulate a range of mechanical pathways, each consisting of specific sequences of flipping of the switches. We show how we can globally manipulate the driving conditions to elicit multiple pathways from a single sample. Our work opens a new route to design complex pathways in metamaterials.