Rigid folding equations of degree-6 origami vertices

Rigid origami, with applications ranging from nano-robots to unfolding solar sails in space, describes when a material is folded along straight crease line segments while keeping the regions between the creases planar. Prior work has found explicit equations for the folding angles of a flat-foldable degree-4 origami vertex and some cases of degree-6 vertices. We extend this work to generalized symmetries of the degree-6 vertex where all sector angles equal 60 & LCIRC;. We enumerate the different viable rigid folding modes of these degree-6 crease patterns and then use second-order Taylor expansions and prior rigid folding techniques to find algebraic folding angle relationships between the creases. This allows us to explicitly compute the configuration space of these degree-6 vertices, and in the process we uncover new explanations for the effectiveness of Weierstrass substitutions in modelling rigid origami. These results expand the toolbox of rigid origami mechanisms that engineers and materials scientists may use in origami-inspired designs.

Automated summary

Rigid origami is a technique where a material is folded along straight crease lines while keeping the regions between the creases planar. Previous research has found equations for folding angles of 4-degree and some 6-degree origami vertices. This study extends the research to generalized symmetries of 6-degree vertices and computes the configuration space of these vertices.