Auto-generating of 2D tessellated crease patterns of 3D biomimetic spring origami structure

Abstract

Computational simulations can accelerate the design and modelling of origami robots and mechanisms. This paper presents a computational method using algorithms developed in Python to generate different tessellated origami crease patterns simultaneously. This paper aims to automate this process by introducing a system that automatically generates origami crease patterns in Scalable Vector Graphics format. By introducing different parameters, variations of the same underlying tessellated crease pattern can be obtained. The user interface consists of an input file where the user can input the desired parameters, which are then processed by an algorithm written in Python to generate the respective origami 2D crease patterns. These origami crease patterns can serve as inputs to current origami design software and algorithms to generate origami design models for faster and easier visual comparison. This paper utilizes a basic biomimetic inspiration origami pattern to demonstrate the functionality by varying underlying crease pattern parameters that give rise to symmetric and asymmetric spring origami 3D structures. Furthermore, this paper conducts a qualitative analysis of the origami design outputs of an origami simulator from the input crease patterns and the respective manual folding of the origami structure.

Keywords

• Biomimetic soft robotics
• 3D origami design
• Design automation
• Computer-aided design
• Structural optimization
• Parametric design