Curved-crease origami inspires self-locking flat-packed tubular structures

This advance from RMIT University in Australia is made possible by a self-locking system inspired by curved-crease origami, a technique that uses curved crease lines in paper folding.

Lead researchers, Dr Jeff (Ting-Uei) Lee and Distinguished Professor Mike (Yi Min) Xie, said bamboo, which has internal structures providing natural reinforcement, inspired the tube design.

“This self-locking system is the result of an intelligent geometric design,” Lee said in a statement. “Our invention is suitable for large-scale use - a panel, weighing just 1.3kg, made from multiple tubes can easily support a 75kg person.”

Flat-pack tubes are used in engineering and scientific applications, such as in biomedical devices, aerospace structures, robotics and civil construction, including pop-up buildings as part of disaster recovery efforts.

The new system is claimed to make these tubes quicker and easier to assemble, with the capability to automatically transform into a strong, self-locked state.

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“Our research not only opens up new possibilities for innovative and multifunctional structural designs, but it can also significantly improve existing deployable systems,” said Xie from RMIT’s School of Engineering.