Folding Angle Regulation by Curved Crease Design for Self Assembling Origami Propellers

Abstract

This paper describes a method for manufacturing complex threedimensional curved structures by selffolding layered materials. Our main focus is to first show that the material can cope with curved crease selffolding and then to utilize the curvature to predict the folding angles. The selffolding process employs uniform heat to induce selffolding of the material and shows the successful generation of several types of propellers as a proof of concept. We further show the resulting device is functional by demonstrating its levitation in the presence of a magnetic field applied remotely.