A Family of Dual-Segment Compliant Joints Suitable for Use as Surrogate Folds

Origami-inspired design is an emerging field capable of producing compact and efficient designs. The object of a surrogate fold is to provide a foldlike motion in a nonpaper material without undergoing yielding. Compliant mechanisms provide a means to achieve these objectives as large deflections are achieved. The purpose of this paper is to present a continuum of compliant joints capable of achieving motions not currently available with existing compliant joints. A series of compliant joints are presented in which the joint can be designed to allow or resist a variety of secondary motions. Closed-form solutions are presented for these compliant joints.