Multi-functional soft robotic structure via combination of origami and kirigami

Versatile change of shape and mechanical property can greatly enhance functionality of soft robots that need to adapt to spatiotemporally varying environmental conditions. Origami and kirigami, the ancient paper art of folding and cutting, are now widely employed to develop mechanical metamaterials and soft robots. Here, we present a highly deformable structure by operating both folds (origami) and cuts (kirigami) on a two-dimensional tessellated sheet. We demonstrate that the sheet can morph into a compactly folded state, beam, or bellow by changing the folding angle and cutting direction. In addition, the resulting structures are shown to exhibit a wide range of elastic resistance, or stiffness, depending on the direction of external force. We show that our robotic system possessing such variable shapes and stiffness can steer into cleavages of varying gaps with tunable, orientation-dependent stiffness.