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Self-folding origami, structures that are engineered flat to fold into targeted, three-dimensional shapes, have many potential engineering applications. Though significant effort in recent years has been devoted to designing fold patterns that can achieve a variety of target shapes, recent work has also made clear that many origami structures exhibit multiple folding pathways, with a proliferation of geometric folding pathways as the origami structure becomes complex. The competition between these pathways can lead to structures that are programmed for one shape, yet fold incorrectly. To disentangle the features that lead to misfolding, we introduce a model of self-folding origami that accounts for the finite stretching rigidity of the origami faces and allows the computation of energy landscapes that lead to misfolding. We find that, in addition to the geometrical features of the origami, the finite elasticity of the nearly-flat origami configurations regulates the proliferation of potential misfolded states through a series of saddle-node bifurcations. We apply our model to one of the most common origami motifs, the symmetric “bird's foot,” a single vertex with four folds. We show that though even a small error in programmed fold angles induces metastability in rigid origami, elasticity allows one to tune resilience to misfolding. In a more complex design, the “Randlett flapping bird,” which has thousands of potential competing states, we further show that the number of actual observed minima is strongly determined by the structure's elasticity. In general, we show that elastic origami with both stiffer folds and less bendable faces self-folds better.
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Variational Level Set Method for Topology Optimization of Origami Fold Patterns
Abstract With specific fold patterns, a 2D flat origami can be converted into a complex 3D structure under an external driving force. Origami inspires the engineering design of many self-assembled and re-configurable devices. This work aims to apply the level set-based topology optimization to the generative design of origami structures. The origami mechanism is simulated using thin shell models where the deformation on the surface and the deformation in the normal direction can be simplified and well captured. Moreover, the fold pattern is implicitly represented by the boundaries of the level set function. The folding topology is optimized by minimizing a new multiobjective function that balances kinematic performance with structural stiffness and geometric requirements. Besides regular straight folds, our proposed model can mimic crease patterns with curved folds. With the folding curves implicitly represented, the curvature flow is utilized to control the complexity of the folds generated. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by the computer generation and physical validation of two thin shell origami designs.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1762287
- PAR ID:
- 10351911
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Mechanical Design
- Volume:
- 144
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 1050-0472
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4053925
