An origami-inspired dynamically actuated binary switch

Abstract

Origami, the ancient Japanese art of folding paper to create esthetic sculptures, has recently emerged in the scientific literature as an innovative means to build mechanical structures with tailorable properties. Along those lines, the Kresling origami pattern has been used to design and construct bi-stable bellows with tailorable stiffness. In this work, we exploit the inter-well dynamic behavior of such bellows to develop and characterize a cluster of mechanical binary switches that can be selectively operated using a single input. This input is in the form of a harmonic resonant excitation with a pre-selected frequency and magnitude applied at the base of the switch. Using a phenomenological model of the switch, we study its nonlinear dynamic behavior and approximate its activation frequency bandwidth. We also demonstrate that multiple binary switches of different geometric characteristics can be combined to create a mechanical memory board of multiple bits placed on a single harmonically excited platform.