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Origami's charm lies not only in its visual appeal but also in its intellectual depth. Paper creations can result in intricate sculptures, ranging from lifelike animals to graceful flowers.
Origami also incorporates profound mathematical concepts. Since the 1960s, engineers and designers have leveraged both the aesthetic and functional aspects of origami to develop efficient solutions that are now applied across various scientific fields.
10. Temporary Shelters
Zipper tubes are designed for disaster relief or emergency shelters. They were developed by brilliant researchers from the University of Illinois, Georgia Institute, and University of Tokyo.
These tubes consist of two zigzag-shaped strips of paper joined together. While a single paper strip is flexible, when two pieces are combined, they interlock to form a tubular structure that is much stronger and more durable.
This design can be made from materials like paper, plastic, or metal. It can vary in size from a tiny structure to one as large as a house. By combining geometric angles, these tubes can be used to create shelters, buildings, or even bridges.
9. Battery Ingestion Hazards
Swallowing a button battery can be life-threatening, but this technology could be a lifesaver. In 2017, there were 3,244 reported cases of battery ingestion, nearly 2,000 of which involved children under the age of six.
This origami-inspired device contains a permanent magnet folded inside and encapsulated in an ice-like capsule. It can deliver medication directly to targeted areas in the body. The magnet directs the robot's movement, which utilizes a 'stick-slip' motion. The robot's protrusions latch onto surfaces inside the body and detach with bodily movements. Additionally, the device moves when it comes into contact with stomach fluids.
The origami robot operates by using an external magnetic field to guide the device through the digestive system, ensuring it passes safely before any harm occurs. Instead of traditional paper, this design is crafted from dried pig intestines—typically used for sausage casings.
This brilliant innovation was developed by researchers from MIT, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
8. Outer Space
Space missions often rely on nuclear fuel to power technology for galaxy exploration. However, this energy source is costly and has a limited lifespan. With budget constraints on space programs, the ability to merge solar and nuclear energy would allow for longer missions at a reduced cost.
Shannon Zirbel from Brigham Young University has envisioned a way to apply the ancient art of origami for this purpose. Current solar panels in space unfold like an accordion from rectangular pieces. However, their size and weight limit the amount of energy they can capture.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Brigham Young University, and origami expert Robert Lang have proposed a more efficient solar array design rooted in origami principles. This new design could generate up to 250 kilowatts of power, far surpassing the 84–120 kilowatts produced by the solar arrays on the International Space Station.
Inspired by the Miura fold, created by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura, their design unfolds like a flower into a broad, flat circular shape. While simple origami-based designs are already used in space exploration, this team is continually seeking improved methods for deploying solar arrays in space missions.
7. The Ocean
Robert Wood from Harvard University designed an origami-inspired robot to safely capture soft-bodied marine creatures during deep-sea dives without causing harm. Given the challenges of working at such extreme depths, the robot's design had to be simple, as any issues can't be addressed without surfacing.
Wood's design featured a five-arm structure composed of interconnected triangles and pentagons, which fold into a 12-sided compartment. This device could easily capture sea slugs, sponges, and corals, powered by a single motor and attached to a robotic submarine.
Additionally, the grabbers are 3-D printed in just hours, revolutionizing how marine biologists conduct research at such extreme ocean depths.
6. Protective Shields
Professor Larry Howell, a mechanical engineering expert from Brigham Young University, created a bulletproof shield based on a folding design that's nearly a century old. Today's bulletproof shields often weigh over 40 kilograms (90 lb) and are typically designed to protect only one person at a time.
Using a traditional origami method, Howell crafted a shield that weighs just 25 kilograms (55 lb) and is large enough to protect multiple individuals at once. The best part is that this enhanced design can be easily folded to fit in the trunk of a police vehicle.
To make sure the thick bulletproof fabric could fold like paper, engineers added rigid panels between the soft sections, allowing them to function as hinges.
5. Muscular Systems
Robots typically have jerky, unnatural movements, making interactions with living beings challenging and sometimes even dangerous.
Researchers at Harvard University and MIT have developed origami-inspired artificial muscles capable of lifting objects up to 1,000 times their own weight. It's like a duck being able to lift an entire car.
These muscles use water or air pressure to generate the strength that other soft, flexible designs lacked. They resemble folded skeletons covered in fluid-filled sacs that collapse and contract, mimicking the action of real muscles when a vacuum is applied. These muscles have potential applications in space exploration, deep-sea research, miniature surgical devices, and wearable robotic exoskeletons.
4. Inflatable Airbags
Robert J. Lang left his prestigious career as a physicist and mathematician at NASA to pursue his passion for paper folding. He was later hired by the German engineering firm EASi Engineering to apply origami techniques in the design of an airbag.
In the event of a crash, an airbag must inflate completely in just milliseconds. It must also be rigid enough to halt the movement of a person at high speeds, while providing enough cushioning to prevent injury. Creating these designs requires critical computer simulations, and the inventors must be experts in thermodynamics, engineering, physics, and geometry.
Origami typically starts with a single sheet of paper that is folded into shapes, but a fully inflated airbag bears no resemblance to a flat piece of paper. Lang used an algorithm known as the 'universal molecule' to craft an airbag with polyhedral facets that could fold down into a compact form, then expand into a protective device that shields passengers without causing injury on impact.
3. Tackling Cancer
Katerina Mantzavinou, a PhD student at MIT, worked on implants designed to deliver uniform doses of chemotherapy to patients with cancer that has spread to their abdominal regions. The surgeons and oncologists collaborating with her team emphasized that a sheet-based design would be superior to the traditional tube model, as it would increase the drug’s coverage area.
Drawing from her experience with origami in biomedical engineering, she realized that the tools had to be no wider than 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) in order to reach the targeted area. They also had to be capable of unfolding once inside the body.
Stretchable polymers infused with drugs were utilized to form the folding patterns, which were then 3-D printed. Thanks to her prototypes, Mantzavinou received the prestigious MIT Koch Institute Image Award in 2018. She is now focused on developing thinner prototypes to bring the design to full realization.
2. Retinal Implants
Sergio Pellegrino, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, has created a retinal implant inspired by origami. This design transforms a 2-D structure into a 3-D one, which is essential to the innovative concept. The implants are made from 2-D parylene-C film, which is then reshaped into 3-D spherical forms to assist individuals with retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.
These conditions lead to the degeneration of photoreceptors that are responsible for detecting light. The flexible design of the implant accommodates different retina sizes and allows multiple electrodes to be positioned near the retina, transmitting electrical signals from a camera placed near the eye. Additionally, the device can be built flat to reduce production costs.
1. Stents
A stent is a pliable tube that can be compressed into a small structure, inserted into problem areas in the body, and then expanded. Esophageal stents are commonly used in the gastrointestinal tract to treat cancers found in the bile duct and esophagus.
This is crucial because many of these cancers are inoperable and resistant to standard treatments. These stents enable patients to swallow instantly, restore bile flow, and often eliminate the need for hospital admission.
Zhong You from Oxford University developed a heart stent based on the origami “water bomb base” technique, which expands similarly to the well-known expanding origami boxes. Made from plastic materials, it is small enough to be inserted via a catheter. Once in position, the stent can be inflated to open up blocked arteries.
