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Large-scale origami locks into place under pressure

Inflatable, metre-scale origami structures have been designed to transform from flat structures into expanded forms and then to lock into their new shape. This technology opens the way to the use of large origami structures for engineering.
  1. Sigrid Adriaenssens

    1. Sigrid Adriaenssens is in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544 New Jersey, USA.

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It might seem surprising that origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, is an integral part of engineering. However, origami structures can be folded up compactly and deployed at the nano- and macroscales seemingly without effort. They are therefore well suited for a wide range of applications, including robotics1, arrays of solar panels2 and engineered structures known as metamaterials3. Writing in Nature, Melancon et al.4 report triangular origami facets that snap into 3D shapes when filled with a pressurized fluid. The authors’ work provides a new method for designing large origami enclosures that can be deployed and locked into shape through inflation.

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Nature 592, 510-511 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00971-7

References

  1. Felton, S., Tolley, M., Demaine, E., Rus, D. & Wood, R. Science 345, 644–646 (2014).

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  2. Zirbel, S. A. et al. J. Mech. Des. 135, 111005 (2013).

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  3. Filipov, E. T., Tachi, T. & Paulino, G. H. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci USA 112, 12321–12326 (2015).

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  4. Melancon, D., Gorissen, B., García-Mora, C. J., Hoberman, C. & Bertoldi, K. Nature 592, 545–550 (2021).

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  5. Nagy, L., Rhode-Barbarigos, L., Adriaenssens, S. & Kilian, A. Int. J. Space Struct. 30 (2), 75–84 (2015).

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