Stiffness Control of Origami Structures via Layered Jamming

Abstract

Deployable structures require both of flexibility during deployment and load bearing after deployment. Origami structures are promising approach to satisfy these properties. On the other hand, flexible creases of origami structures tend to be weak. Therefore, this study proposes control method of crease stiffness based on layered jamming. The jamming phenomenon provides high bending stiffness by friction caused by vacuum pressure. To demonstrate the load bearing capability of the proposed method, we envelop an origami structure fabricated via three-dimensional printing and layered aluminum sheets. Furthermore, the load-bearing capability of the proposed structure is investigated via compression test, resulting that layered jamming increases load-bearing capability of the origami structure.