EAGER: Collaborative Research: Origami-Based Extremely-Packed Multistable Pop-Up Design for Medical Masks

智力优势：该研究项目旨在发展对具有多稳定性的新型扭曲弹出式折纸结构的基本理解。折纸弹出式结构的实际应用需要一个遮篷和连接的多个折纸环来形成功能连续的面，这限制了折叠路径的可达性。本研究将研究折纸环之间的相互作用如何影响折叠和展开，并提供理解和识别规则来设计折叠路径，以克服这些相互作用所施加的限制。这项研究将产生有关折纸环的能量景观和不同状态的稳定性的知识。这种理解将有助于设计新颖的扭转使能弹出和自组装结构的多稳定性。 更广泛的影响：这项研究项目可以使一类新的折纸结构具有巨大的未来应用潜力。建议的折纸设计可快速弹出和自我组装，可在抗击COVID-19疫情期间大大提高口罩的运输效率。此外，所提出的折纸概念可以很容易地应用于设计其他个人防护设备，如眼镜，长袍等，它也可能导致新的折纸结构，是非常可取的，在许多苛刻的应用，如国家安全和人类健康。该研究将提高公众的科学素养和公众对科学技术的参与，并通过将研究与精心设计的教育任务相结合，并将项目的先进材料研究纳入现有本科和高等教育的课程开发，鼓励妇女和代表性不足的少数民族参与STEM。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Intellectual Merit:The research project aims to develop fundamental understanding of novel twisting-enabled pop-up origami structures with multi-stability. Practical applications of origami pop-up structures require a canopy and connected multiple origami rings to form a functional continuous face, which limits the accessibility of folding paths. This research will study how interactions among origami rings will affect folding and unfolding and provide understanding and identify the rules to design folding paths to overcome constraints imposed by these interactions. The research will yield knowledge about the energy landscape of origami rings and the stability of different states. Such understanding will facilitate the design of novel twisting-enabled pop-up and self-assembled structures with multi-stability. Broader Impacts: This research project could enable a new class of origami structures with great potential for future applications. The proposed Origami design with rapid pop-up and self-assembly could greatly increase transportation efficiency of masks during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the proposed origami concept can be readily applied to design other personal protection equipment such as eyewear, gowns, etc. It could also lead to new origami structures that are highly desirable in many demanding applications such as national security and human health. The research will increase the public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology and encourage the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM through integration of the research with carefully designed educational tasks and by integrating the advanced material research from the project into course development in existing undergraduate and high-level graduate courses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.