Sonobe Origami Polyhedra – Links
Instructions for Making Origami Polyhedra
Instructions for Making Other Origami Figures
Mathematics in Origami
Using Origami to Teach Standard Mathematics Topics
Origami as a Field of Mathematics
Applications of Mathematical Origami
History of the Sonobe Module
Applications of Mathematical Origami
- The October 2001 Siam News article "In the Fold", available in PDF format, presents a range of applications of mathematical origami.
- Tom Hull wrote a paper, available as a PDF file, that discusses a practical map fold that allows a user viewing one small section to shift in any of the four cardinal directions without completely opening and refolding the map.
- Koryo Miura invented a widely celebrated procedure for folding a map called the Miura-Ori fold that is vastly superior to the conventional method. With his fold, a map opens and closes more easily and has less of a tendency to tear at folded corners. This method also has applications in other technologies, such as designing foldable solar sails. Olivier Boisard gives detailed directions for folding a Miura-Ori map. Erik Demaine's photo collage from the 3rd International Meeting of Origami Science, Math, and Education includes some pictures of the Miura-Ori map and a model of the solar sail unfolding in space. Under the "Space" link on their Think Quest origami site, Yuka Aihara, Sachiko Akikawa and Urara Akashi show some pictures of a Japanese solar sail, launched in 1995, that used the Miura-Ori fold.
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is developing a number of foldable space telescopes. SPACE.com's web site has an article with additional information about the design of one of the telescopes. Erik Demaine has some photos of a model of a folding telescope.
- EASi Engineering GmbH used folding algorithms from origami to create a software system that tests the safety of airbag packings for car manufacturers. Robert Lang has an article about airbag folding on his web page.
- A group at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute has used origami theory to develop a sheet metal design system for the Intelligent Bending Workstation Project (IBW). The TRUMPF Group also uses ideas from origami in their sheet metal designs.
- Tomoko Fuse has a number of ideas for more efficient paper product designs that are made from a single sheet of paper and use no adhesives. The designs are based on mathematical origami principles and the products can all be made by machines on a production line.
- Radhika Nagpal is using ideas from biology and origami in the field of artificial intelligence. Radhika's thesis presented a language for a self-organizing system that achieves global goals via local computations. The global language is based on Huzita's axioms of geometric origami, and the local instructions are inspired by developmental biology.
- A number of engineers combine origami with biomimetics (engineering that mimics mechanisms found in nature) to develop new technologies. The Deployable Structures Laboratory at the University of Cambridge has a number of projects relating to biomimetics and origami.
- Carlos A. Furuti has a web site that explores distortions resulting from representing a spherical Earth as a flat map. He also explores the virtues of a variety of polyhedral representations of the Earth and gives templates so that you can make your own origami polyhedral globes.
