Description

Origami is the ancient art of paper folding. It started with traditional designs, and then came to creation of new models, and more recently transpires into scientific applications and researches. One of the first topic deals with geometry; apart from being used for educational purposes, it raises non trivial questions, for instance: Can the perimeter of a flat-folded model be larger than the one of the original unfolded sheet of paper? Given a crease pattern, will it fold flat? Given a target folded state, can a folding sequence be designed automatically?

From these studies, the dedicated field of computational origami emerged since 1996, making use of algorithms for optimization and design [Lang 1996]. The folding process itself is linked to the kinematics of mechanisms and materials; it is also a source of innovation for designing deployable, foldable, and shape-adaptive structures: stents, airbags, temporary roofs, compliant mechanisms, spatial applications… Both these features and the artistic background of origami are also used for design of architectural structures.

The aim of this presentation is to give an overview of the synergy of origami and scientific topics, to illustrate its potential source of innovation, and to present recent advances in engineering field.