Training for desired Folding Pathways in Self Folding Origami

Creased sheets can possess an exponential number of folding pathways accessible from the flat state. This property poses an engineering challenge in the design of specialized self-folding origami patterns with one or a few prescribed folding pathways. We seek an alternative means to eliminating undesired folding pathways via physical training. We fold creased sheets along desired folding pathways and allow the initially equal crease stiffnesses to dynamically evolve according to a local rule dependent on folding strain. We find that undesired folding pathways are eliminated in saddle-node bifurcations, leaving behind only one or two desired folded pathways. In this way, we find that physical folding, combined with a plasticity rule for crease stiffness, can naturally arrive at design parameters needed for non-linear behaviors that are hard to predict otherwise.