UX Study for Origami-Inspired Foldable Robotic Mechanisms

Origami-inspired robotic mechanisms have unique advantages due to their flexibility, softness, and easy fabrication, and their great potential to democratize the wearable computing in human-computer interaction (HCI). It is interesting and intriguing to explore the functionality and user experience of the origami-inspired foldable mechanisms in HCI field. In this work, we focus on the fabrication process of origami robotic mechanism and conduct a user study on the user experience of the process as an interaction design. Especially, we adopt three typical origami robotic mechanisms with cylindrical structures: Twisted tower, Yoshimura pattern, and Kresling pattern. We standardize the fabrication processes and confirm the robotic functions of these origami structures. We ask participants to join the user study to practice origami folding for these three structures. From this study, we found the trade-off relationships among the three structures in aspects of ease of use, fabrication time, and functionality. We believe that this work can stimulate research interest in soft origami-inspired structures in HCI community.