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Reconfigurable materials

Algorithm for architectural origami

Nature volume 541, pages 296–297 (2017)Cite this article

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An algorithm has been developed allowing the rational design of origami-inspired materials that can be rearranged to change their properties. This might open the way to strategies for making reconfigurable robots. See Article p.347

The properties of most materials depend on their composition, but when a material's crystal structure changes, its properties also change drastically. Such behaviour often occurs in smart materials and polymers, the properties of which alter in response to external stimuli such as temperature or pH. Architected materials, also known as metamaterials, can mimic this behaviour by containing engineered structures. Many automated technologies would benefit from the use of reconfigurable architected materials. On page 347, Overvelde et al.1 report an algorithm that allows one class of these materials to be designed and their deformation properties to be investigated.

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Figure 1: Designing prismatic architected materials based on origami.

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Affiliations

  1. Jamie Paik is in the Reconfigurable Robots Laboratory, School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.

    Jamie Paik

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  1. Jamie Paik
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Correspondence to Jamie Paik.

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Paik, J. Algorithm for architectural origami. Nature 541, 296–297 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/541296a

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