Exploring Textile Foldability For Origami-Inspired Structures

Authors:

Faith Atieno, Kausalya Mahadevan, Katia Bertoldi

Date Created:

2025-01-01

Course Title:

Professor:

Not specified

About Paper:

With the growing interest in soft robotics, textiles have emerged as of textile behavior, we intentionally selected fabrics with distinct promising materials due to their softness, breathability, flexibilitymechanical characteristics: chiffon, woven nylon, and quilting and lightweight nature, as well as their familiarity in daily life. cotton. In deployable structures, textiles can be embedded with actuators Our results show that both fabric type and stitch parameters and programmed to deform into predetermined 3D shapes through significantly influence folding performance. For example, a specific stitch designs. This study focuses on textile foldability, consistent stitch pattern on woven nylon achieved a 70% folding defined as the ability of a fabric to transform from one shape to another under actuation, which draws inspiration from origami to successrate. In7cm-widesamples,panelgapsof5-10mmresulted convert flat sheets into 3D forms. in full folding with near-zero angles between panels, while smaller gaps (<5 mm) produced acute angles. The same stitch pattern Weinvestigatefoldabilitybysewingdifferentstitchpatternsontoa produced noticeably different results across fabrics, demonstrating single fabric and observing how the material folds when actuated. the importance of material selection. The primary actuators used are heat-shrinking and water-soluble These findings offer valuable insight for the design of deployable threads, which contract or dissolve under heat and water exposure textile structures, helping guide choices in fabric type and stitch to trigger folding. Once the folding behavior of a stitch pattern configurationwhenmanufacturing2Dtextilesdesignedtofoldinto is established, we replicate it on various fabrics to examine how material properties affect foldability. To explore a broad range specific 3D shapes.

Abstract:

With the growing interest in soft robotics, textiles have emerged as of textile behavior, we intentionally selected fabrics with distinct promising materials due to their softness, breathability, flexibilitymechanical characteristics: chiffon, woven nylon, and quilting and lightweight nature, as well as their familiarity in daily life. cotton. In deployable structures, textiles can be embedded with actuators Our results show that both fabric type and stitch parameters and programmed to deform into predetermined 3D shapes through significantly influence folding performance. For example, a specific stitch designs. This study focuses on textile foldability, consistent stitch pattern on woven nylon achieved a 70% folding defined as the ability of a fabric to transform from one shape to another under actuation, which draws inspiration from origami to successrate. In7cm-widesamples,panelgapsof5-10mmresulted convert flat sheets into 3D forms. in full folding with near-zero angles between panels, while smaller gaps (<5 mm) produced acute angles. The same stitch pattern Weinvestigatefoldabilitybysewingdifferentstitchpatternsontoa produced noticeably different results across fabrics, demonstrating single fabric and observing how the material folds when actuated. the importance of material selection. The primary actuators used are heat-shrinking and water-soluble These findings offer valuable insight for the design of deployable threads, which contract or dissolve under heat and water exposure textile structures, helping guide choices in fabric type and stitch to trigger folding. Once the folding behavior of a stitch pattern configurationwhenmanufacturing2Dtextilesdesignedtofoldinto is established, we replicate it on various fabrics to examine how material properties affect foldability. To explore a broad range specific 3D shapes.

Source:

Harvard / Isabelle Agarwal, Kaylee Wells, Lee Rubin / 2025

Topics:

fabric, textile, stitch, folding, material, foldability, structure, shape, pattern, origami, behavior, woven

Co-authors:

@faithatieno244 , @kausalyamahadevan245 , @katiabertoldi246