The algorithm uses a two-step method to find the optimal path through the tile pattern for a string that can be tightened to activate the structure. It calculates the minimum number of points that the string must lift to form the desired shape and finds the shortest path that connects those lift points, while encompassing all areas of the object’s boundary that must be connected to guide the structure into its 3D configuration. It performs these calculations in such a way that the string path minimizes friction, allowing the structure to be activated smoothly with just a single pull.
The activation method is easily reversible to return the structure to its planar configuration. Patterns can be produced using 3D printing, CNC milling, molding or other techniques.
This method could enable complex 3D structures to be stored and transported more efficiently and at lower cost. Applications could include transportable medical devices, foldable robots that can fold flat to enter hard-to-reach places, or even modular space habitats deployed by robots on the surface of Mars.
“The simplicity of the entire actuation mechanism is the real advantage of our approach,” says lead author Aqib Zaman, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science. paper At work. “The user simply needs to provide their desired design, and then our method optimizes it in such a way that it maintains its shape after just one pull on the string, so the structure can be deployed very easily. I hope people will be able to use this method to create a wide variety of different, deployable structures.”
The researchers used their method to design a number of objects of varying sizes, ranging from personal medical items to splints and posture correctors to igloo-like portable structures. He also designed and manufactured a human-scale chair. This technology can be used to create objects ranging in size from small objects inside the body to architectural structures such as building frames, which are deployed on site using cranes.
In the future, the researchers want to further explore designs at both ends of that range. Furthermore, they want to create a self-deployment mechanism, so that the structures do not need to be actuated by a human or robot.
