Origami, the art of folding paper, was once only an art form. In recent years, it has collided with the world of engineering and is acting as a source of inspiration for solutions to various engineering problems. Paper, the typical material used in the art form, is thin and works well for origami, but is not often suitable for use in engineering. Researchers have developed a handful of methods for accommodating thick/rigid materials in origami design. Most of these preserve only the kinematics of the model or its range of motion. Not only does the offset panel technique (OPT) preserve both the kinematics and the range of motion, it also allows for flexibility in design. This work focuses on the further development of the OPT and its potential to be implemented in real-world applications. The OPT provides design flexibility by allowing for the use of various and multiple materials, the modification of panel geometry, and the utilization of any rigid-foldable origami pattern. These and other capabilities are demonstrated in several application examples.

Origami has been investigated and demonstrated for engineering applications in recent years. Many techniques for accommodating the thickness of most engineering materials have been developed. In this work, tables comparing performance and manufacturing characteristics are presented. These tables can serve as useful design tools for engineers when selecting an appropriate thickness-accommodation technique for their application. The use of bent sheet metal for panels in thick-origami mechanisms shows promise as a panel design approach that mitigates several trade-offs between performance and manufacturing characteristics. A process is described and demonstrated that can be employed to use sheet metal in designs of origami-adapted mechanisms that utilize specific thickness-accommodation techniques. Data structures based on origami can be useful in the automation of thick-origami mechanism design. The use of such data structures is explained and shown in the context of a program that will automatically create the 3D CAD models and assembly of a thick-origami mechanism using the tapered panels technique based on the input origami crease pattern. Manufacturability in the design of origami-adapted mechanisms is discussed through presenting and examining three examples of origami-adapted mechanisms. As the manufacturability of origami-adapted products is addressed and improved, their robustness will also improve, thereby enabling greater use of origami-adapted design.