Скачать или смотреть New Origami "Bloom" Patterns, BYU Engineering Innovation

The new origami "Bloom" pattern, discovered by a team of BYU engineers, has potential in both art and in engineering. BYU engineers use origami-inspired design for everything from surgical devices to space systems.

BYU's Compliant Mechanisms and Robotics Group has free Bloom patterns and 3D printables on their website. See compliantmechanisms.byu.edu/maker-resources
For a folding tutorial, see a recent video posted by origami content creator, Evan Zodl    • Origami Bloom Patterns: How to Fold a Y6.2...  

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Advances in origami engineering: BYU student discovers novel patterns that unfold like blooming flowers

BYU Engineering is well known for origami-inspired research and innovations, including foldable antenna systems used in space. Recently, an undergraduate student made a significant discovery—a new family of origami patterns with promising applications across a range of fields, including space systems, medical devices, bulletproof shields, architecture, furniture and aerodynamic components for transportation.

BYU student Kelvin (Zhongyuan) Wang is the lead author of this discovery, which was recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society. Co-authors include BYU professor Larry Howell, a global expert on compliant mechanisms (e.g., jointless structures such as origami), and Robert J. Lang, an origami artist and a leading theorist on origami mathematics.

“Origami is a centuries-old art form, so it’s really unusual for us to discover new origami patterns, a new family of patterns,” Howell said.

The researchers coined the term “bloom patterns” to describe this new group of unfolding mechanisms that resemble flowers blooming.

“Bloom patterns have three main characteristics that make them unique,” said Wang, a BYU mechanical engineering major. “First, they can be folded flat. Second, they are deployable. Third, they expand like a flower blooming, rotating from a symmetric center.”

While one or two of these features are common in origami, it has been rare to find all three characteristics in a single design. This combination offers both technical and economic advantages.

• Flat foldability is ideal for stowing large arrays in compact spaces.
• Deployable systems require crease patterns that allow transformation without damaging the material.
• Repeating panels and rotational symmetry offer stability and lower manufacturing cost, since it’s more efficient to replicate identical panels than to produce varied parts.

Another unique aspect of the bloom pattern is the intermediate shape that emerges between the flat and fully deployed forms.

“One can imagine using that intermediate state, that spherical shape, as the desired finished state,” said Lang who has worked with BYU on various origami projects for the past 10 years.
“If one wants, for example, a bowl or perhaps a dish antenna, the bloom pattern could provide that.”

Lang emphasized that this discovery opens a research field for testing real-world applications.

“We've opened a door into a new family of patterns, and we can now go explore through that door,” Lang said. “There are a lot of patterns out there waiting to be discovered. And this paper provides a guidepost for how to systematically explore this new space and find the structures that are going to be useful.”

For Wang the process of discovery has been both creative and fulfilling.

“The process of discovery requires a lot of repetition. I feel incredibly peaceful as I fold and get into that state of flow. I can fold sometimes for hours. It feels wonderful to do that even when it’s mostly repetitions. I’m creating something out of paper with my hands and ideas come to my mind—to reality—about how to make it into a physical model,” Wang said.

Wang added, “I love to do origami but if I can use origami to make practical applications that can benefit the world, that will be a dream come true.”

To learn more about origami engineering, see BYU’s Compliant Mechanisms and Robotics Group, a research collaboration that includes both Larry Howell and Kelvin (Zhongyuan) Wang. For instructions about how to make origami mechanisms, including 3-D printables, see maker resources. For a folding tutorial, see a recent video posted by origami content creator, Evan Zodl    • Origami Bloom Patterns: How to Fold a Y6.2...