Origami has inspired the engineering design of self-assemble and re-configurable devices. Under particular crease patterns, a 2D flatten object can be transformed into a complex 3D structure. This work intends to find out a systematic solution for topology optimization of origami structures. The origami mechanism is simulated using shell models where the in-plane membrane, out of plane bending, and shear deformation can be well captured. Moreover, the pattern of the folds is represented implicitly by the boundaries of the level set function. The topology of the folds is optimized by minimizing a new multiobjective function, aiming to balance the kinematic performance with the structural stiffness as well as the 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 are utilized to control the complexity of the generated folds. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated through the computational generation and physical validation of a thin-shell origami gripper.


Generative Design of Origami-Inspired Mechanisms With a Variational Level Set Approach

Division / Sponsors: 
Design Engineering Division and Computers & Information In Engineering Division


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2020/volume/83907

IDETC2020 - Virtual Conference

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.