Origami of thick panels

Expanding origami to thicker materials A vast array of origami patterns can be applied to the folding of any material of near-zero thickness, such as paper. However, the folding of thick materials requires adding material and offsets. Chen et al. develop a general model in which the standard spherical linkages (creases) are replaced with rigid panels connected via offset folds, so that the folding motion of both near-zero–thickness and thick objects is the same. Furthermore, the hinges are constrained to move in only one direction, which is important for applications such as unfolding solar panels in space or large engineering structures, where you want the folding to occur automatically. Science , this issue p. 396