Kirigami-inspired bidirectional extensible planar deployable structures with driving mechanisms

Deployable structures inspired by origami and kirigami are widely utilized in engineering applications. Existing origami and kirigami models have limitations in constructing large-scale deployable structures with respect to the extensibility and flatness of the working surface. To increase the deployment ratio and construct large deployable structures, this paper presents bidirectionally extensible arrays inspired by thick-panel kirigami, which have an entirely flat working surface. A two-vertex nine-crease kirigami pattern is proposed. On the basis of kinematic analysis, thick-panel kirigami models are given, and all possible crease arrangements are discussed. Several kirigami configurations are selected to construct extensible arrays. These configurations offer excellent extensibility and regular surface characteristics, which can be used to build infinite bidirectional extensible arrays. Additionally, scissor-like planar driving mechanisms are developed to achieve controllable deployment of the proposed kirigami arrays by adjusting the trajectory of feature points. A prototype of the bidirectionally extensible deployable structure is constructed, and experimental studies are conducted to validate the feasibility of the design. The proposed deployable structures show significant potential for specific engineering applications, particularly large-scale deployable structures.