A novel analysis method for magnetically actuated soft origami mechanisms

Abstract

The magnetically actuated soft origami mechanisms (MASOMs), which integrates the advantages of magnetic actuation and origami mechanisms, possesses promising prospective applications on soft untethered machines such as soft robots and compliant actuators. Generally, the deformation behavior of these mechanisms are analyzed through finite element analysis (FEA) considering elusive nonlinear constitutive equations of magnetically actuated elastomer that captures magnetic body torque and force induced by a magnetic field. However, it is time-consuming and troublesome to model and analyze the case with heterogeneous magnetization distribution. We propose an equivalent magnetic bar and hinge model to investigate the folding behavior of planar MASOMs under a uniform magnetic field. Both FEA and experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in analyzing MASOMs with different system geometries and magnetization profiles. Two case studies with parallel and serial origami creases and different magnetization profiles are provided to show the practicability. The proposed model provides an effective method to investigate and design MASOMs.