Miura-ori structure is one of the origami structures and is widely explored in various fields due to its foldability and expandability, especially in many engineering applications like the deployable solar panels of a space shuttle or the foldable actuator inside a soft crawling robot. In fact, the Miura-ori structure is not a fixed structure, but it is a collection of patterns constructed based on specific rules. As its structural morphology is the external expression of the inherent structural law, understanding how these patterns are generated paves the way in developing more practical Miura-ori based applications.

In this thesis, the mathematic model of an evolved version of Miura-ori structure, namely the rounded Miura-ori structure, was first developed. The rounded Miura-ori stru...[ Read more ]

Miura-ori structure is one of the origami structures and is widely explored in various fields due to its foldability and expandability, especially in many engineering applications like the deployable solar panels of a space shuttle or the foldable actuator inside a soft crawling robot. In fact, the Miura-ori structure is not a fixed structure, but it is a collection of patterns constructed based on specific rules. As its structural morphology is the external expression of the inherent structural law, understanding how these patterns are generated paves the way in developing more practical Miura-ori based applications.

In this thesis, the mathematic model of an evolved version of Miura-ori structure, namely the rounded Miura-ori structure, was first developed. The rounded Miura-ori structure is much more applicable when the target surface was a cylinder. Both the classical Miura-ori structure and the rounded Miura-ori structure are systematically analyzed in Chapter 2; first is the model construction for their periodically arranged unit cells, then followed by the parameterizations for the target variables, and finally, is the geometry visualizations for both the two structures under different parameter designs which achieved via MATLAB.

Next, based on the numerical designs for the Miura-ori based structures, we focus on exerting the value of the structural designs by combining them with various materials to fabricate three flexible electronics for developing a wearable sensing system. And these Miura-ori structure-based flexible electronic devices are systematically reported in this thesis, that are: 1) Conductive elastomer with strain insensitivity resulted from the Miura-ori structure; 2) Miura-ori structured microneedle array electrode with ventilation channels for stable signal output, and 3) Thermoelectric generator with large ∆T under the folding state of the Miura-ori structure.

The add of the structural design has provided new functionality to the traditional materials, at the same time allowing these otherwise prosaic paper folding art much more practical functions.