Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have taken inspiration from origami to create inflatable structures that can bend, twist and move in complex, distinct ways from a single source of pressure.

Figure 1: Origami to create inflatable structures from a pressure.

Figure 1 shows that most of today's inflatable soft actuators are monostable, meaning they need a constant input of pressure to maintain their inflated state. Lose that pressure and the structure deflates to its only stable form.

"In this work, we use bistable origami building blocks to circumvent that limitation." said David Melancon. [1]

Research team uses a classical origami pattern known as the Kresling motif, which is characterized by alternating mountains and valleys folded in cylinders to form triangular cells.

Researchers began to create simple monostable modules of the Kresling pattern. To unlock the biostability, they added a flaw in the origami motif: an additional point that creates a four-triangle dome that can pop in or out if a certain amount of negative or positive pressure is provided.

Antonio Elia Forte said, “We start to inflate the structure under a special pressure to pop a special cell that will keep popped even if you remove the pressure. Then, in this new configuration, because we break the symmetry, we can simply use a vacuum to trigger bending, contraction, or twisting. Next, we inflate the structure to a second pressure to pop additional cells that unlock completely different deformations when we vacuum it.”

“By assembling different modules and tuning their geometry to cause shutters at different pressures, we create structures capable of complex shapes and deformation modes that can be pre -programmed and activated using only one pressure source,” said Melancon. [2]

The researchers constructed an actuator with 12 completely different modules and confirmed that it may possibly carry out as much as eight completely different, complicated motions. The crew additionally developed an algorithm that may establish the optimum mixture of modules for the specified deformation modes.

For the reason that mechanics at play within the system are pushed by geometry, the method might result in functions throughout scales.

“By simply increasing and decreasing the pressure, our inflatable actuators can perform complex tasks, no cables, motors or electricity required,” stated Bertoldi. “This is important for many applications, including surgical operations or space exploration.” [3]

References:

1. 1.https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220715142130.htm
2. https://www.tamilbloggers.xyz/complex-motions-for-simple-actuators-inflatable-actuators-use-origami-principles-to-deform-in-intricate-ways/
3. https://news8plus.com/complex-motions-for-simple-actuators/

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), Origami Inflatable Structures to Deform Soft Robots in Different Ways, AnaTechMax, pp.241