Origami-Inspired Integrated Planar-Spherical Overconstrained Mechanisms

This paper presents two integrated planar-spherical overconstrained mechanisms that are inspired and evolved from origami cartons with a crash-lock base. Investigating the crash-lock base of the origami cartons, the first overconstrained mechanism is evolved by integrating a planar four-bar linkage with two spherical linkages in the diagonal corners. The mechanism has mobility one and the overconstraint was exerted by the two spherical linkages. This mechanism is then evolved into another integrated planar-spherical overconstrained mechanism with two double-spherical linkages at the diagonal corners. The evolved mechanism has mobility one. It is interesting to find that the double-spherical linkage at the corner of this new mechanism is an overconstrained 6R linkage. The geometry evolution is presented and the constraint matrices of the mechanisms are formulated using screw-loop equations verifying mobility of the mechanisms. The paper further reveals the assembly conditions and geometric constraint of the two overconstrained mechanisms. Further, with mechanism decomposition, geometry and kinematics of the mechanisms are investigated with closed-form equations, leading to comparison of these two mechanisms with numerical simulation. The paper further proposes that the evolved overconstrained mechanism can in reverse lead to new origami folds and crease patterns. The paper hence not only lays the groundwork for kinematic investigation of origami-inspired mechanisms but also sheds light on the investigation of integrated overconstrained mechanisms.