Rapid Deployment of Curved Surfaces via Programmable Auxetics

MINA KONAKOVIĆ-LUKOVIĆ, EPFL
JULIAN PANETTA, EPFL
KEENAN CRANE, Carnegie Mellon University
MARK PAULY, EPFL

This paper develops novel deployable structures that can approximate a large class of doubly-curved surfaces and are easily actuated from a flat initial state via inflation or gravitational loading. The structures are based on two-dimensional rigid mechanical linkages that implicitly encode the curvature of the target shape via a user-programmable pattern that permits locally isotropic scaling under load.

Most existing realizations of deployable structures are geometrically simple and often exhibit strong symmetries. Deploying more general curved surfaces is made difficult by the inherent complexity of jointly designing initial and target geometries within the constraints imposed by the deployment mechanism.

Numerous physical objects, such as ship or airplane hulls, building facades, clothing, and many consumer products are fabricated by shaping thin, initially planar materials. The shaping process typically involves bending, stretching, or otherwise deforming the material using a mold or scaffold to guide the deformation towards the desired 3D shape. Deployable structures provide an alternative where the shaping process and resulting target geometry are implicitly encoded in the structure itself.