Origami-Inspired Shelters
ORONO — Engineers from the University of Maine are pioneering structure designs inspired by the art of origami.
Origami is the delicate process of precisely folding paper to create a sculpture, but it was also the main inspiration behind a half decade long project at the University of Maine.
Anthony Verzoni, the graduate student from University of Maine responsible for the project, says origami inspired him to create structures that could easily fold and unfold in a matter of minutes.
Verzoni says, “It started with making simple cardboard and foam board models and the idea was to create a shelter that was very rapidly deployable and would also pack into the smallest volume possible”.
According to Verzoni, the structures could easily be transported and used by the military to make them more mobile in the field.
Verzoni says one of the biggest problems while designing his origami structures was figuring out how build a structure that is solid but also able to fold and unfold indefinitely.
“The manufacturing techniques over time and history have been proven its very difficult to create the hinge lines so we tried to limit the number of folding lines and to do that you had to use very very common easy shapes,” says Verzoni.
According to doctor masoud rais-rohani, one of the mechanical engineering professors that work on this project, the implications of these structures go beyond that of just military purposes and could play a crucial role in disaster relief efforts.
“Because if you think about, you know, disasters around the world really providing a good shelter a quick shelter is really perhaps one of the most important or urgent things or actions that need to be taken,” says Rais-Rohani.
The post Origami-Inspired Shelters appeared first on WVII / Fox Bangor.