Recent development on innovation design of reconfigurable mechanisms in China

Abstract

Reconfigurable mechanisms can deliberately reconfigure themselves by rearranging the connectivity of components to meet the different requirements of tasks. Metamorphic and origami-derived mechanisms are two kinds of typical reconfigurable mechanisms, which have attracted increasing attention in the field of mechanisms since they were proposed. Improving the independent design level, innovation, and international competitive powers of reconfigurable mechanical products is important. Summarizing related significant innovation research and application achievements periodically will shed light on research directions and promote academic exchanges. This paper presents an overview of recent developments in innovation design of reconfigurable mechanisms in China, including metamorphic and origami mechanisms and their typical applications. The future development trends are analyzed and forecasted.

Keywords

innovation design / reconfigurable mechanisms / metamorphic mechanisms / origami-derived mechanisms / development trends

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51635002, 51575018, and 51605011) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFE0105000).

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