Geometry and Motion Analysis of Origami-Based Deployable Shelter Structures

The basic concept of a deployable pyramidal shelter structure based on origami is introduced. Various radially foldable systems are composed by leaf units in leaf-in and leaf-out patterns. Then the geometry and motion of the system are studied. The geometry in the fully deployed configuration for the leaf-out pattern is identical to that for the leaf-in pattern. During motion, the leaf-in pattern reveals actually folding incompatibility. In other words, there are two strain free states; this indicates that a structure is self-locking, i.e., a strain will need to be induced in order to move the structure from one configuration to the other. The strain of the system is irrelevant to the number of leaf elements. The structure with the leaf-out pattern has rigid mobility. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.