Deployable structures are structures that need to be packaged and unpackaged depending on their function, such as an umbrella for example. There is significant demand for such structures in space applications - satellite reflector dishes and solar arrays need to be compact when launched inside a rocket, but large when orbiting the earth.
Biomimetics is the study of biological structures and mechanisms for the purpose of applications in technology. A collaboration between Japanese and UK scientists had identified a particular folding pattern present in the leaves of hornbeam and beech trees, see right. My research was concerned with the application of biomimetic principles to deployable structures. In particular, I investigated the extension of the leaf mechanism to larger deployable structures.
I identified how the leaf pattern could be joined up and repeated to form foldable polygonal membranes, see left. There are a range of ways to do this, some of which are even suitable for folding approximations to curved surfaces.
A list of relevant publications is available.
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