A pseudo rigid body model of a Single Vertex Compliant-Facet Origami Mechanism (SV-COFOM)

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increased interest in origami art from a mechanism design perspective. The deployable nature and the planar fabrication method inherent to origami provide potential for space and cost efficient mechanisms. In this paper, a novel type of origami mechanisms is proposed in which the compliance of the facets is used to incorporate spring behavior: Compliant Facet Origami Mechanisms (COFOMs). A simple model that computes the moment characteristic of a Single Vertex COFOM has been proposed, using a semi-spatial version of the Pseudo-Rigid Body (PRB) theory to model bending of the facets. The performance of this PRB model has been evaluated numerically and experimentally, and showed performance comparable to a Finite Element model with 122 elements. The PRB model is a potential starting point for a design tool which would provide an intuitive way of designing this type of mechanisms including their spring behavior, with very low computational cost.