A comparative study on the activation of deployable

origami patterns
Jorge Yarasca Luis Córdova Alexander Sea
Mechanical Engineering department Mechanical Engineering department Mechanical Engineering department
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Pontificia Universidad Catolica del
Peru Peru Peru
Lima, Peru Lima, Peru Lima, Peru
jorge.yarasca@pucp.edu.pe cordova.luis@pucp.edu.pe a20204613@pucp.edu.pe

John Malpartida l
Mechanical Engineering department
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del
Peru
Lima, Peru
jmalpartida@pucp.pe

Abstract— Based on the Partially Elastic Origami Model 2; the Kresling and Resch pattern is presented in Section 3
from Saito, Tsukahara, and Okabe (2015) [1], this study and 4, the numerical results are presented in Section 5, and
evaluates the versatility of the model by verifying its the conclusions are drawn in Section 6.
effectiveness with self-deployable origami patterns that were not
part of Saito, Tsukahara, and Okabe’s research. Using
computational simulation, the results from Saito, Tsukahara,
and Okabe’s were replicated, and the effectiveness of the II. THE PARTIALLY ELASTIC ORIGAMI MODEL
Partially Elastic Origami Model could be proven with 2 new For illustrating their model, Saito, Tsukahara, and Okabe
origami patterns: the Kresling Pattern and the Resch’s Pattern.
(2015) [1] consider a 3 x 3 quadrilateral origami (Fig. 1a).
Keywords—origami, deployable structures, folding structures Under the premise of rigid folding, all fold lines and vertexes
of the quadrilateral mesh can be replaced with truss members
I. INTRODUCTION and pin joints, respectively, and two additional trusses are
Origami stands as an ingenious solution for the folding added to the diagonal lines of each quadrilateral facet (Fig.
and deploying of structures. Consequently, researchers are 1b), forming hinged plates.
looking for methods to develop self-folding origami with
potential application for space structures, morphing wings,
micro-robots, and medical devices.
Typically, origami-based structures are modeled on the
assumption of rigid folding, meaning the facets and fold lines
of origami can be replaced with rigid panels and ideal hinges,
respectively. However, ideal rigid folding is impossible in
real structures. In fact, every act of folding and unfolding
involves elastic deformations.
Saito, Tsukahara, and Okabe (2015) [1] proposed a model
Fig. 1. Origami model and its respective 3D truss. (a) 3 x 3 quadrilateral
for assessing elastic deformation in non-rigid origami mesh origami, (b) 3 x 3 quadrilateral mesh origami substituted with truss
structures. In this model, the facets of origami are replaced members and pin joints under the premise of rigid folding. [1]
with not only rigid plates but also elastic ones. Initial strain is
introduced into the elastic parts of this model and these parts
function as actuators for the complete deployment of the Except for Miura-ori, 3x3 quadrilateral hinged plates
origami-based structure. cannot be folded under the condition of rigid folding. This is
because of the stability of their structure. However, if one
Based on the Partially Elastic Origami Model from Saito, plate is removed to relax this restriction (Fig. 2), the
Tsukahara, and Okabe (2015) [1], this study seeks to evaluate remaining eight plates become unstable, and this creates a 1-
the versatility of this model by verifying its effectiveness with degree-of-freedom (DOF) mechanism whose folding process
Kresling’s and Resch’s origami patterns. Using rigid body can be evaluated as rigid foldable.
numerical simulation, the Partially Elastic Origami Model is
assessed with two new origami patterns and the results are Once one plate is removed, the hollow area (E) (Fig. 2a)
compared with the results that Saito, Tsukahara, and Okabe will deform according to the motion of the frame of the rigid
obtained. parts. The partially elastic origami model assumes that an
elastic plate is inserted into the position of the hollow area
The present paper is organized as follows: a description (E).
of the partially elastic origami model is presented in Section
Fig. 2. (a) Representation of partially elastic origami model based on a 3 x 3
quadrilateral mesh origami and (b) the truss model of the rigid part. The eight
gray plates R are assumed as rigid plates, while the upper plate is replaced
with an elastic plate E. [1]
Fig. 4. The simplified model of the cylindrical origami with Kresling pattern
[2]

The deformation of the elastic plate can be represented by

elastic truss-A (Fig. 3). A rigid folding simulation on the rigid
parts (gray) is performed to obtain the history of the
coordinate values of the vertexes. During the
folding/unfolding process, elastic truss-A deforms because of
its nonrigid foldability. As the trajectories of vertexes B and
C give the length of truss-A at the time, the strain can be
calculated.
There is an interesting application for Kresling pattern.
They use this pattern, based on a hexagonal cylinder, coupled
one by one in order to mimic an octopus’s arm. The authors
of this investigation use magnetic controllers between each
section. Due to the independence of each arm section, it can
stretch, fold, bending and twisting the arm. Thus, the
similarities between a real octopus’s arm and the robotic arm
are clear.

Fig. 3. Partially elastic origami model with single elastic truss member-A.
As a result of the folding/unfolding process, truss-A is forced to deform, and
the resultant strain can be calculated by the trajectories of vertexes B and C.
[1].

As confirmed by the results of Saito, Tsukahara, and
Okabe (2015) [1], it is possible to achieve deployment solely
by changing the length of truss-A. Therefore, truss-A works
as an actuator whose length is expanded or contracted freely
for the deployment of the entire structure.
Fig. 5. Experimental result from the top view of the robotic arm
omnidirectional bending with one deployed unit. Colored contour boxes
represent yellow, blue, and red units deployed in the eight regions. A binary
code is used to represent the state of the entire robotic arm from the bottom
to the top units [3]

III. THE KRESLING PATTERN

As previously mentioned, the Partially Elastic Origami
Model will be assessed with two new origami patterns for this
investigation. One of these patterns is the Kresling pattern.
The Kresling pattern is a well-known application to
transform a 3D object into a plane. It is based on a polygonal
cylinder that is deployed by twisting. Many engineers,
physics and artist have been gotten the attention by the large
amount of applications that can be generated with this pattern.
Fig. 6. Magnetic profile and experimental result of the robotic arm
omnidirectional bending motion from the top view. [3]
According to figure 5, the robotic arm can be deformed at
any direction. Bending behavior could be explained by the
interaction between the in-plane magnetization Mi and the
magnetic field B applied. In this case, authors use binary code
to describe each state of bending.
 Inspired in octopus’s arm, researchers have built a robotic
arm with 16 origami units. The robotic arm length is enough
to simulate motion for moving and preying. In figure 6, there
is a simulation how the robotic arm catches the object that is
close located
The omnidirectional bending and integrated motions of
demonstrated small-scale robotic arms can be used to
developed miniaturized medical devices for endoscopy,
intubation, and catheterization with the functionalities of
object manipulation and motion in 3D space [3]. For this
reason, it is important to keep developing more applications Fig. 8. Resch’s pattern tessellation
of Kresling pattern.

V. SIMULATION AND RESULTS

IV. RESCH’S PATTERN
The other origami pattern that will be used to evaluate the 5.1. REPLICATION OF SAITO, TSUKAHARA, AND OKABE (2015)
versatility and effectiveness of the Partially Elastic Origami RESULTS
Model is the Resch’s pattern.
As shown in Figs. 9, 10, and 11, the results from Saito,
Important designs of 3D origami tessellation patterns Tsukahara, and Okabe (2015) for the partially elastic origami
and/or their structural applications have been investigated, model based on a 3 x 3 quadrilateral mesh origami were
series of 3D origami tessellations by Fujimoto, PCCP shells successfully replicated using computational simulation.
and Miura-ori , tessellation models by Huffman, and Resch’s
structural patterns. In this investigation, we focus on the
series of patterns proposed by Resch in the 1960s and 70s;
one of these patterns is shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7. Regular triangular tessellation by Resch [4]

Fig. 9. 3 x 3 quadrilateral mesh origami’s pattern model.

If we look at its final 3D form, we can observe that the

surface comprises surface polygons and tucks to be hidden;
the difference is that the tuck part is much simpler and can
exist in a half-folded state as well (Fig. 8). The flexibility of
a half-folded tuck not only avoids interlocking structures but
also controls the curvature of the surface by virtually
shrinking the surface to form a double-curved surface.
The pattern in Fig. 7 forms a synclastic (positive Gaussian
curvature) surface when it is folded halfway. However,
possible 3D forms are limited by their 2D patterns. To obtain
Fig. 10. 3 x 3 quadrilateral mesh origami’s pattern model–
a desired freeform double-curved surface, the generalization final position.
of the 2D patterns from a repetitive regular pattern to
appropriately designed crease patterns are necessary.
 Fig. 11. 3 x 3 quadrilateral mesh origami’s pattern model.
Rotation vs Strain
5.2 RESULTS KRESLING’S PATTERNS
The Kresling Origami sketch (figure 12) was drawn in the
software Solidworks. Hexagonal faces were selected due to
its simplicity. The model was completed and simulated in the
software ANSYS. In figure 13 is shown the final position
when the model is twisted at all. The strain was evaluated
from the central points of the hexagons (points A and B in
figure 13). The relation between the rotation of a lateral face
and the activation strain between points A and B is presented
in figure 14.
Fig. 12. Kresling pattern model
Fig. 13. Kresling pattern – final position
Fig. 14. Kresling pattern – Rotation vs Strain
5.3. RESULTS RESCH’S PATTERNS
The Resch Origami patter is presented in figure 15. In this
case, the model was fully developed in ANSYS. A rigid
dynamic simulation was employed, with the square faces set
as coplanar. A rotation angle between the external squares
and the triangles was used to activate the mechanism. The
activation strain was measured between the points A and B in
figure 15. The final position of the model is shown in figure
16. In order to avoid collision between the parts, only a
rotation of 80° was investigated instead of the theoretical
value of 90°.
Fig. 15. Resch’s pattern model
Fig. 16. Resch’s pattern – final position
 Rotation (º) V. CONCLUSION
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
-0.45
The effectiveness of the Partially Elastic Origami Model
-0.40
could be proven by replicating the results from Saito,
-0.35
Tsukuhara and Okabe (2015) and by evaluating the model
-0.30
with 2 new origami patterns: the Kresling Pattern and the
Strain (mm/mm)

-0.25
Resch’s Pattern.
-0.20

-0.15 REFERENCES
-0.10

-0.05 [1] Saito, K., Tsukahara, A., & Okabe, Y. (2015). New deployable
0.00 structures based on an elastic origami model. Journal of mechanical
design, 137(2), 021402.

Fig. 17. Resch’s pattern – Rotation vs Strain

According to the obtained results, with the studied
method, the deformation of the Resch’s pattern has 2 stages.
In the first stage, which is between 50° and 50°, a little
deformation is required to activate the origami. In the second
stage (50° to 80°), higher strain is required.
[2] Cai, J., Ma, R., Zhou, Y. & Deng, X. (2016). Advances in
reconfigurable mechanism and robots II. Springer. Edinburg
[3] Wu, S., Ze, Q., Dai, J., Udipi, N., Paulino, G. & Zhao, R. (2021).
Stretchable origami robotic arm with omnidirectional bending and
twisting. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America. Columbus, 2021, vol. 118, Nro. 36, pp. 1-9

[4] Tachi, Tomohiro. (2013). Designing Freeform Origami Tessellations

by Generalizing Resch's Patterns. Journal of Mechanical Design. 135.
10.1115/DETC2013-12326.