The Grainger College of Engineering
Civil & Environmental Engineering

Origami engineering conference draws world experts

5/21/2014 Celeste Arbogast

New innovation in engineering uses principles of origami to create folding structures.

Written by Celeste Arbogast

An origami design by Tomohiro Tachi
An origami design by Tomohiro Tachi

An origami design by Tomohiro Tachi, who is pictured holding it.

Among recent innovations in engineering, one of the most intriguing is the use of the principles of origami to create novel structures. Folding structures are being developed at all scales for a broad range of purposes—for example, in the creation of tiny, minimally invasive surgical tools and in the development of moveable parts on buildings that regulate shade or orient solar panels. Some are smart structures, capable of assembling themselves through the use of shape memory alloys or the inclusion of semi-conductors.

With the goal of furthering this science, some of the world’s foremost experts gathered on the University of Illinois campus April 14-16 for the Workshop on Origami Engineering, funded by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and organized by CEE Professor Glaucio Paulino. The term “origami engineering” was coined by Paulino during a year serving as the director of the Mechanics of Materials program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). It refers to the utilization of the artistic and scientific principles of origami in the creation of novel structures. The NSF is providing significant funding for the development of this initiative through its program Origami Design for Integration of Self-Assembling Systems for Engineering Innovation (ODISSEI).
Tomohiro Tachi presents
Tomohiro Tachi presents
The workshop drew experts from as far away as Tokyo, many of whom presented. The three-day event also included ample time for networking, which Paulino hoped would spark the sharing of ideas and plans for future collaboration. The presentations were open, so attendees also included many faculty and students from various departments.

Presenters included:

  • Koryo Miura, a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and an icon in the field of origami, having designed one of the most-used origami patterns, the Miura-ori.
  • Robert Lang, an artist and consultant on origami, recognized as one of the foremost origami artists in the world as well as a pioneer in computational origami and the development of formal design algorithms for folding.
  • Tomohiro Tachi, a professor of origami at the University of Tokyo, who has written a suite of origami software, including the Origamizer, Freeform Origami, and the Rigid Origami Simulator.
  • Sergio Pellegrino, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, who is conducting interdisciplinary research to design novel retinal implants with distributed microelectronics that conform accurately to retinas of different shapes.

“The success of the workshop exceeded my expectations,” Paulino said. “We addressed state-of-the-art algorithms and methods for folding, assembling, analyzing, optimizing, designing and building origami and tensegrity systems, with the goal of making the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign a leader in the field.”

Koryo Miura
Koryo Miura
Tensegrity, a term coined from the concept of tensional integrity, refers to structures in which the components are connected by struts that hold two points apart or by cables that hold them together (continuous tension, discontinuous compression). The geometric problem that must be solved to build a tensegrity is the same one required to calculate the base for many origami forms, so the base design for origami is a tensegrity. For both tensegrity and origami, solving the geometrical problem is an essential underlying optimization problem in the creation of an artistic design.

“In the future, civil engineering systems can become highly adaptive environments that transform themselves, like plants, to optimize their performance in response to both external and internal stimuli,” Paulino said. “Origami has already shown tremendous potential to serve as an adaptable system. The artistic and seamless merging of origami and tensegrity within our built environment has the potential to facilitate cost-efficient, dynamic, artistic and comfortable living spaces.”

More information on origami engineering, as well as videos showing folding structures in action, can be found here: http://paulino.cee.illinois.edu/origami_tensegrity_initiative.html.

Kurt Maute, the Joseph Negler Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Associate Dean for Reach at the University of Colorado, Boulder, presents, “Origami Design Enabled by Active Polymers.”
Kurt Maute, the Joseph Negler Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Associate Dean for Reach at the University of Colorado, Boulder, presents, “Origami Design Enabled by Active Polymers.”
Kurt Maute, the Joseph Negler Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Associate Dean for Reach at the University of Colorado, Boulder, presents, “Origami Design Enabled by Active Polymers.”
Workshop attendees examine a design by Tachi.
Workshop attendees examine a design by Tachi.
Workshop attendees examine a design by Tachi.

All photos by L. Brian Stauffer

 

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This story was published May 21, 2014.