Origami Mechanisms
In the absence of locking strands the mechanism fluctuates freely along its motion path.
Origami mechanisms. In the left image the mechanism is modeled as a simple origami paper pattern. Dna origami mechanisms from advances in reconfigurable mechanisms and robots springer 2012 professors carlos castro and haijun su have developed what they call dna origami machines and mechanisms to pave the way for new small scale devices that could revolutionize medicine manufacturing and environmental sensing. Plus for large flat structures origami provides a way of shrinking dimensions while ensuring simply deployment this is particularly useful for solar arrays in space applications.
The foldability of origami inspired mechanisms is inherited from the origami folds ability to fold and unfold a network of panels. Origami inspired mechanisms while originally used as an art and craft it has evolved to be a valuable inspiration for engineered systems. The images below show how a practical engineered system can be created using a simple origami pattern.
A the four bar mechanism called a bennett linkage traverses a complex 3d motion path between extreme configurations of an open frame top left or a compacted bundle bottom left. Therefore the investigation of origami inspired mechanisms can use well established features of spherical mechanisms. Dna origami mechanism with 3d motion.
B tem images confirm well folded structures.
