An End-to-End Approach to Self-Folding Origami Structures by Uniform Heat

This paper presents an end-to-end approach to automate the design and fabrication process for self-folding origami structures. Self-folding origami structures by uniform heat are robotic sheets composed of rigid tiles and joint actuators. When they are exposed to heat, each joint folds into a preprogrammed angle. Those folding motions transform themselves into a structure, which can be used as body of 3D origami robots, including walkers, analog circuits, rotational actuators, and micro cell grippers. Given a 3D model, the design algorithm automatically generates a layout printing design of the sheet form of the structure. The geometric information, such as the fold angles and the folding sequences, is embedded in the sheet design. When the sheet is printed and baked in an oven, the sheet selffolds into the given 3D model. We discuss (1) the design algorithm generating multiple-step self-folding sheet designs, (2) verification of the algorithm running in O(n2×m) time, where n and m are vertices and face numbers, respectively, (3) implementation of the algorithm, and (4) experimental results, several self-folded 3D structures with up to 55 faces and two sequential folding steps.