Origami-Inspired Camber Design in Rigidized Membrane-Like Wings

The vast array of wings in the natural world show remarkable shape and functional adaptability. For example, the Desert Locust, the Earwig, and the Flying Fish harness segmented origami fan-like mechanisms to control deployment of membrane-like wings. The Earwig in particular couples origami with rigidizing elements via resilin joints. While numerous studies have explained the camber and functionality of existing membrane-like wings (the forward problem), a systematic application of origami design principles in combination with rigidizing elements to achieve desired wing camber (the inverse problem) remains relatively unexplored. Here, we present a modeling approach which allows us to describe and predict the wing camber for conical geometry. Specifically, we show that cross-sections along the aerodynamic flow stream become conical sections, implying a consistent camber. By calculating the eccentricity of the conical section, we can precisely tailor the slope of the leading edge of the wing. Combining this with prior work models of non-Euclidean rigidizing elements, we can restrict the high degree of freedom fan-mechanism, to a lower degree of freedom passively controlled multistable aerostructure, serving as the foundation for the design of flying soft robots.