Regular Folding Pattern Generation for Deployable Non-Axisymmetric Tubes

This paper presents two modeling techniques to design folding patterns for deployable non-axisymmetric tubes, with regular arrangement of fold lines based on three fundamental folding designs; Miura folding, bellows folding, and folding with six fold lines at each node. The first technique is conducted by allowing cutting and removing unnecessary parts from the original folding pattern — one of the corresponding straight cylinder. The next technique is to design additional fold lines on unnecessary parts to fold them up into the tube, without cutting the surface. Consequently, applicability and constraints of each folding design and modeling techniques are discussed and summarized.