Proceedings of the International Association for
Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) Symposium 2013
„BEYOND THE LIMITS OF MAN”
23-27 September, Wroclaw University of Technology, PolandJ.B. Obrębski and R. Tarczewski (eds.)

Interactive Form-Finding of Elastic Origami
Tomohiro Tachi
Assistant Professor, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, tachi@idea.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Summary: In this paper, we propose a novel computational method to simulate and design origami whose form is governed by the equilibrium offorces from the elastic bending of each panel. In special, we explore statically indeterminate origami structure that can be manipulated by pin
supporting finite number of vertices. The computational method is proposed so that we can interactively explore the design space of such origami
form. The concept of kinematic origami tessellation based on bending of panels is introduced.
Keywords: Origami, Morphology, Kinematics, Rigid Origami, Form-finding

1.

INTRODUCTION

The form of origami made of thin sheet material is governed by bending
as well as rigid origami mechanism, i.e., panel and hinge mechanism.
For example, some classes of quadrangle-based origami form one-DOF
mechanism as rigid origami while such a structure can be flexibly bent
and twisted when each quadrangle panel bends in the diagonal direction(Fig. 1). Here, the form is governed by the boundary conditions andequilibrium of stresses from the bending of each panel. This yields aninteresting variety of forms with double curvatures potentially useful forthe fabrication based on self-folding and bending and for transformableand flexible structures and architectural components for responsiveenvironments. However, existing kinematic method for rigid origami
simulation cannot be applied to appropriately capture such an elastic
behavior of origami.
In this paper, we present a novel computational method for interactively
simulating and designing origami whose form is governed by thebending of each panel. The bending of each panel is modeled by anangular spring between facets. The valid form is described by theequilibrium of the bending moment. Unlike a straightforward formfinding approach based on minimizing bending energy while fixing thesupport conditions, we introduce geometric constraints that keep theform to be under equilibrium. Our method naturally avoids impossible
support conditions by handling support positions also as variables. We
introduce an interactive form finding system of such elastic origami. We
introduce the concept of an elastic origami tessellation that can be
kinematically controlled by actuating the positions of the supporting
vertices.

moments are first converted into equivalent forces applied at the nodes.
Following the notation in Fig. 2, Angular momentat edgeapplied to triangle
is equivalently represented by the forces , ,and at vertices , , and , respectively, as
cot

(1)

cot

(2)
,

is the height, andwhere
is set as the base.

and(3)

are the base angles when edge

Fig. 2: Force applied to triangle uvw.
Here, we assume the constant stiffness angular spring as,,
whereis the length of the edge and(4)is the mean height. In this case,when

we use harmonic mean

anddenotethe incident two triangles.

Fig. 1: Twisting Miura-ori.
2.

BENDINGWe first represent an origami surface as a triangular mesh rigid origami
by triangulating non-triangular facets (quadrangles etc.) and also byadding sufficient number of foldlines representing the smooth bending
behavior. This model can be represented as an unstable truss mechanism
3 degreesin which each edge is a rigid bar. Such a mechanism has
is the number of edges on theof freedom of transformation whenboundary of the mesh, if the structure is a topological disk [1].
Then, the form is stabilized by the equilibrium of the force from theelastic bending of each panel which is represented by the angular springsatat the edges added to triangulate panels. The angular moment
edge is given by the function of the folding angle . The angular

Here, Equation (4) is chosen so that the angular moment is 1)
proportional to the edge length when the height is constant and 2) scale
independent when the shapes are similar. These properties are necessary
because of the consistency with respect to 1) splitting and 2) scaling
operations. 1) If edge of length is split into arbitrary two portions withlengthsand(), the moment must satisfy
because otherwise the same geometric forms withdifferent meshing can produce different angular moment. 2) The total. If
bending energy of thin elastic shell is given by ∝the bent form is scaled by factor , then the curvature is given by′/ and the area ′. Then, ′and thusisscale independent (Fig. 3).
The forces are then written as

cotcot

(5)

cot

(6)
cot

,

(7)

1

The equilibrium of bending and axial forces is a necessary condition forthe model to be in a valid configuration. Here, we use force densities/to represent the axial force
at edge. Then, foreach structurally unconstrained vertex u,.

Here, by referring to equations (5), (6), and (7),w.

8, cotequals theFor structurally constrained vertex (pin supported),reaction force from the support. The concept of force density originatesin [2]; however, we allow force densities to vary unlike in the originalforce density method, in which is constant. The configuration of thestructure is represented by the vertex coordinates⋯⋯
and the force densities⋯
where the number of vertices is and the number ofedges is . Vector equation,⋯confines theδconfiguration to a subspace within which infinitesimal variation
δsatisfies
δδ.

cotlinear combination ofis a 3, , . The gradient, and,,14

is represented as aas a linear combination ofof the normal vector of face f incident to v

3 matrix given by
00000001/0,(15)

where unit vectors , , andcompose an orthogonal frame asshown in Fig.4. The last term in Equation (14) represents the force
density method when force densities are constant.
∑if

if
is adjacent to .
else

(16)

9Fig. 4: Notation of orthogonal unit vectors.
4.

Fig. 3: Consistency with respect to splitting (top) and scaling (bottom).
3.

CONSTRAINTS

By introducing additional geometric constraints for origami into thissystem, we can obtain design variations of bent origami form. We
assume that the crease pattern is unchanged, i.e., the lengths of the edges(including triangulating edges) are preserved. Such a condition can bewritten as
⋯

TT

⋯,

(10)

where is the target length of the edge . Then, the overall constraints
are represented asδδ
where the elements of Jacobean matrixδδand,

11are,ifif,

12

else
ifif.

13elseBecause the interior angle of each facet and the length and stiffness ofeach edge are constant, the elements of is written as

2(14)

SOLVING CONSTRAINTS

In a generic situation, Equations (8) and (10) yield an underdetermined
system when multiple points are specified as pin supports. The numberof degrees of freedom including 6 degrees of rigid motion is given by
3 where is the number of support. This means that if we fix thepositions of supporting vertices, we can obtain unique solution or
discrete solutions. Therefore, straightforward method for obtaining abending-active form is to minimize the bending energy while fixing thepositions of the support arbitrarily. However, some set of support
positions do no yield a valid bending form, and thus the design
parameters cannot be arbitrarily set.
Our geometric approach naturally avoids this problem by directly
solving the equilibrium conditions and assuming that the positions of thesupport are also variables. Therefore, the support configuration can beinversely calculated through 3D form finding. Equations (8) and (10) are
0 and nosatisfied in a state where each bending edge satisfies
force is applied to each edge
. From such an initial solution, wecan obtain a variety of forms through continuous variation satisfying
Equation (11). We use an interactive approach by orthogonallyδ
specified by the user input to theprojecting an estimate variationδlinear subspace using Moore-Penrose generalized inverse
as,
δδ

δ
δ

,

(17)

similarly to solving kinematics of unstable transformable structures [3].
In the design system, the variation is discretized and numericallyintegrated. In order to eliminate the accumulated errors, generalized
Newton-Raphson’s method is applied. The generalized inverse solution
for each step is calculated using the conjugate gradient method.
The initial estimate variation is indicated by dragging the vertices of thedisplayed structure through graphical user interface. Here, an interesting
aspect is that the positions of structurally unpinned vertex can bedirectly modified, or even geometrically pinned to a given 3D position.

(14)

Proceedings of the International Association for
Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) Symposium 2013
„BEYOND THE LIMITS OF MAN”
23-27 September, Wroclaw University of Technology, PolandJ.B. Obrębski and R. Tarczewski (eds.)

Fig. 5: Deformation of Miura-ori. Red circles and the segment from the circle indicate the support and the reaction force, respectively.

Fig. 6: Deformation of an eggbox sheet.

5.
5.1.

DESIGN EXAMPLES
Quad Mesh

We apply the design method to obtain form variations of quadrangle
mesh origami. Miura-ori and Eggbox patterns are regarded as
overconstrained one-DOF mechanisms when they are modeled as rigidorigami, however when the bending behavior of each quadrangle istaken into account, their first eigenmodes can be globally anticlastic(Miura-ori) and synclastic (eggbox pattern) deformations as investigatedby Shcenk and Guest [4].
Fig. 5 shows the form variations of Miura-ori in an equilibrium when 6points on the boundary are set as the pin support of the structure. In total,
the number of degrees of freedom is essentially determined by thesupport condition. With 6 pin supports, the structure forms a mechanismwith 12 degrees of freedom (11 elastic + 1 rigid). Fig. 6 shows the form
variations of eggbox pattern by varying the initial rigid origami state
while the structure is supported at 4 points on the boundary, resulting ina mechanism with 6 degrees of freedom of transformation. Validconfigurations include synclastic and anticlastic surfaces.

5.2.

Kinematic Tessellated Surface

Since the positions of the support pins are inversely derived from thesurface configuration, we can use our idea to the development of akinematic surface system using thin elastic tessellated surface and small
number of actuators. The concept is to use the design system to freely
modify the 3D surface in the system while the surface configuration isinterpreted as the positions of the support. A continuous transformationis thus recorded as the footprints or the paths of the supporting vertices,which can be used to control the physical tessellated origami model toform a freeform doubly curved surface. Fig. 7 Illustrates the concept ofkinematic surface using the support pins as the controller.
5.3.

Uncreased Surfaces

We can also approximate the bending of uncreased surfaces byappropriately meshing the surface along the rulings of the bent surfaces.
Fig. 8 shows the calculated bending behavior of an elastic fan whose
center point has a point crease. Fig. 9 represents a bent ribbon. Thisapproximation qualitatively well captures the behavior of the bending ofan uncreased continuous sheet. However, an uncreased developable
sheet is a ruled surface whose ruling pattern can also continuously
change. In order to truly capture this characteristic, a new method withthe change in the mesh structure is necessary.

3

Fig. 9. Bending-active ribbon.
6.

CONSIDERATION OF THE DIMENSION

In our method, the variation in the vertex coordinates δ and the force
densities δ are packed in one vector variable. Since Equation (17)performs an orthogonal projection in the configuration space, thedistance function in the configuration space can affect the result. Forin theconsistency, we describe as in the length unit and thus
cubed length. In order to avoid scale dependency, we use average lengthof the edge to normalize these parameters when we initialize the model.
We can later scale the force densities proportionally; the scaling factor
affects how the form responds to a given input deformation. The force
densities can easily adapt to a given deformation when they are scaledsmaller; as a relative result, the deformation is closer to the originaluser’s input.
7.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS

We introduced a novel method to design origami forms governed by thebending of the panels by representing the configuration by the vertex
coordinates and force densities, and then directly solving the equilibrium
conditions as geometric constraints that form an underconstrained
system. We introduced an interactive design system in which the user
can intuitively find forms under equilibrium. Using the system, design
variations of quadrangle panel origami tessellation models wereachieved as well as an approximation of uncreased developable surface
with bending. This leads to the idea of kinematic tessellated surfaces thatcan be controlled by actuating a small number of support vertices.
Our method assumes that the patterns do not change. Since therelocation of the rulings is essential in the bending of smoothdevelopable surface, we would like to extend our method so that itallows for the change in the pattern. This is supposed lead to thesimulation and design of curved folding structures. Another future work
to be done is to treat the elastic stretch of the sheet as well as bending tocapture different types of buckling of sheet material.
8.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by JST, PESTO.

Fig. 7: Kinematic surface actuated by controlling the positions of 9
points (reaction force drawn in blue). The trajectory of the support isdrawn in red.

9.

REFERENCES[1]

Tachi, T., Geometric Considerations for the Design of Rigid
Origami Structures, in Proceedings of IASS Symposium 2010,Shanghai, China, (2010) pp. 771-782.
Linkwitz, K., and Schek, H.-J. Einige Bemerkungen zur
Berechnung von vorgespannten Seilnetzkonstruktionen, IngeniuerArchiv 40, 3, (1971) pp. 145–158.
Hangai, Y., and Kawaguchi, K. 1991. Shape Analysis of Structures(Japanese: Keitai Kaiseki). Baifukan.
Schenk, M., Guest, S.D., Folded Textured Sheets, In proceedingsof IASS 2009 Symposium, September 28-October 2, 2009, Valencia,Spain (2009).

[2]

[3]
[4]

Fig. 8. Fan with a point crease in the middle.

4