Fabrication and actuation performance of the plant-inspired fluidic origami cellular structure (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

Motivated by the sophisticated geometries in origami folding and the fluidic actuation principle in nastic plant movements, the concept of fluidic origami cellular structure was proposed for versatile morphing and actuation. The idea is to assembly compatible origami sheets into a cellular architecture, and apply fluidic pressure into its naturally embedded tubes to achieve effective shape reconfigurations. Despite the promising potentials, the actuation capabilities of fluidic origami, such as free stroke and blocking force, are not elucidated. Especially, we do not understand the effects of thick facet material compliance and pressure-sealing end caps. This research aims to address these issues by incorporating realistic considerations into the design, fabrication, and analysis of fluidic origami. We construct CAD models of fluidic origami tubes that incorporate the finite facet material thickness and flat end caps. Various design parameters are chosen carefully to ensure that they can be fabricated via commercially accessible 3D printing techniques. These models are then used to analyze the actuation performance via finite element simulation (FEA). Results show that the undesired effects from end caps are limited to the unit cells at the tube ends, and fluidic origami can indeed provide robust actuation and morphing capability.