Varghese, MidhunThe work presented in this thesis discusses the design, manufacturing, and experimental characterization of a novel bioinspired metamaterial soft fluidic actuator that possesses the ability to undergo pattern reconfiguration due to buckling instability during both positive and negative pressures. This phenomenon has not been observed in any previous metamaterial porous structure and is thereby the novelty of this design. This leads to a new class of metamaterials with a negative equivalent Poisson's ratio. The thesis further discusses the various experimental studies performed to characterize the Metamaterial Fluidic Actuator (MFA) both upon inflation and deflation through Pressure-Volume Curves, change of porosity, and variation of equivalent Poisson's ratio. Among potential applications, the MFA has been used as a distributed gripper to manage flexible thin objects and as a modular artificial muscle.enThesisMechanical engineeringRoboticsActuatorArtificial MuscleBioinspiredDistributed GripperMetamaterialSoft Robot