Characteristics of Self-Deployment in Origami-Based Systems

Abstract The potential of compliant mechanisms and related origami-based mechanical systems to store strain energy make them ideal candidates for applications requiring an actuation or deployment process, such as space system arrays, minimally invasive surgical devices and deployable barriers. Many origami structures can be thought of as a compliant mechanism because, like compliant mechanisms, its function is performed through the elastic deformation of its members. This stored strain energy could prove useful. There are opportunities using strain energy to develop approaches to deploy particular mechanical systems. In order to better understand the principles of self-actuation and promote the designs of such systems, a taxonomy of deployable origami mechanisms is presented. This taxonomy demonstrates that there are several different types of deployable origami mechanisms and provides an organizational method to better understand the design space. Characteristics of self deployment in concentrated, deployable origami strain energy mechanisms with internal actuation are identified and examples of strain energy based deployment are provided.