GALCIT Colloquium

Folding of thin sheets based on the principles of origami can create a rich variety of deployable, reconfigurable, and mechanistically tunable three-dimensional structures. This talk will present my group's work on exploring the mechanics and design of origami with the aim of enabling functional shape-morphing and adaptation at multiple scales. We first discuss our work on creating reduced-order models to simulate the deployment, mechanics, and multi-physics of different origami geometries. These models allow us to explore and address challenges related to the physical design and fabrication of origami at multiple-scales. At the micro-scale, we use photo-lithography based micro-fabrication to create miniature electro-thermal origami that achieve 3D self-assembly, rapid actuation, programmable shape-morphing, and active control of many degrees-of-freedom. At the meter scale, we introduce a concept for modular uniformly thick origami systems that can adapt into different shapes and can carry remarkably large loads. The fundamental principles of mechanics and design discussed in our talk are relevant to a variety of deployable and adaptable structures include metamaterials, biomedical micro-robotics, deployable satellites, reconfigurable architecture, and more.