A novel construction method for 1-DOF multi-loop kirigami mechanisms

Kirigami has been utilized in designing deployable mechanisms for various engineering applications. This paper presents a novel construction method for one-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) multi-loop kirigami mechanisms whose folding motions are kinematically equivalent to their original degree-4 rigid origami. Firstly, we introduce a family of single-loop kirigami (SLK) as the main loop of 1-DOF multi-loop kirigami. Secondly, the coupling-constraint properties of multi-DOF SLKs are clarified, and the structural characteristics of the 1-DOF multi-loop kirigami are defined, based on which, the construction method for the 1-DOF multi-loop kirigami is proposed. Thirdly, the representative models are selected and their kinematics are presented to demonstrate their capability to achieve folding motion equivalent to their origami prototypes, thus verifying the validity of our proposed methodology. Fourthly, the non-constraint condition of the 1-DOF multi-loop kirigami is presented. Finally, we propose extended configurations of 1-DOF multi-loop kirigami and provide the forward and inverse design methods for constructing kirigami meshes. The proposed methodology facilitates the design of large-scale deployable structures.