DOI
10.5703/1288284318535
Description
This research presents a scalable building material for unmanned vehicles, inspired by origami principles and designed for adaptive functionality and stealth. Traditional fixed-shape vehicles face significant limitations in optimizing performance metrics such as velocity, payload capacity, and observability, often resulting in highly specialized designs that increase costs and resource consumption. To address the challenge, we introduce self-folding building material that incorporates pre-constructed creases, embedded actuation mechanisms, and location tags. The system utilizes electric rails organized on multiple levels, enabling switch modules to traverse internal channels and activate folding circuits with precision. A two-step folding process is demonstrated to reduce actuation torque by 28% compared to direct folding methods, enhancing energy efficiency and mechanical reliability. The crease construction algorithm is tailored to minimize joints and optimize for load-carrying, speed, and stealth requirements, with center of gravity stabilization and adaptive boundary shaping. Future work will focus on scaling the technology for larger and more complex vehicles, optimizing crease patterns for additional performance metrics, and integrating advanced sensing and control systems. This approach offers a promising pathway toward versatile, cost-effective unmanned vehicles capable of dynamic adaptation to diverse operational environments.
Function-Adaptive Hulls: Reconfigurable Building Material for Multipurpose Unmanned Vehicles
This research presents a scalable building material for unmanned vehicles, inspired by origami principles and designed for adaptive functionality and stealth. Traditional fixed-shape vehicles face significant limitations in optimizing performance metrics such as velocity, payload capacity, and observability, often resulting in highly specialized designs that increase costs and resource consumption. To address the challenge, we introduce self-folding building material that incorporates pre-constructed creases, embedded actuation mechanisms, and location tags. The system utilizes electric rails organized on multiple levels, enabling switch modules to traverse internal channels and activate folding circuits with precision. A two-step folding process is demonstrated to reduce actuation torque by 28% compared to direct folding methods, enhancing energy efficiency and mechanical reliability. The crease construction algorithm is tailored to minimize joints and optimize for load-carrying, speed, and stealth requirements, with center of gravity stabilization and adaptive boundary shaping. Future work will focus on scaling the technology for larger and more complex vehicles, optimizing crease patterns for additional performance metrics, and integrating advanced sensing and control systems. This approach offers a promising pathway toward versatile, cost-effective unmanned vehicles capable of dynamic adaptation to diverse operational environments.