Origami-inspired design of a single-DOF reconfigurable wing with lockable mechanisms

Abstract The morphing wing can enable the aircraft to maintain good flight performance in different missions or flight stages, which has enjoyed much attention in recent research. However, it is difficult to design the wing with multiple configurations and lightweight. Inspired by the origami art, a reconfigurable mechanism with a single-degree-of-freedom (single-DOF) is introduced to the morphing wing design in this paper. The bending configuration, the deployable configuration, and the configuration transformation of the reconfigurable mechanism are respectively analyzed. The lengths of some links are also optimized according to the motion requirements. Specific kinematic pairs of the reconfigurable mechanism are required to have the locking function. Therefore, a reliable “plug-in” type lockable mechanism is designed and its working performance is verified by comparing the analytical model and the finite element method model. Finally, by assembling the reconfigurable mechanism with the ribs, the reconfigurable wing which can realize the arbitrary transformation of four configurations under a single drive mode can be obtained.