RUM: Reconfigurable Umbrella Mesh
Advances in Architectural Geometry 2023
A fully reconfigurable umbrella mesh composed of 37 identical cells. Sliding the top andbottom plates towards the X-joints effectively shortens the active scissor linkage arms, leadingto reduced lateral expansion. In this way, significantly different deployed target shapes can beachieved in a single model. Note how the parts of the arms that are not active, i. e. above the topand below the bottom plates, avoid collisions and form a reciprocal arrangement
Abstract
We propose Reconfigurable Umbrella Meshes (RUMs), a new class of pre-assembled deployable structures. A RUM has a compact rest state that can be easilyaltered to deploy into different bending-active 3D target shapes. RUMs consist of elasticbeams and rigid plates connected by hinge joints and can be assembled in a stress-freefabrication state. The key principle of a RUM is that it encodes the desired deploymentshape in the height distribution of its constituent cells. Reconfigurability is achievedby introducing sliding joints to connect the elastic beams with the rigid plates to allowadapting the cell heights. We demonstrate that even for small variations in the cellheights, RUMs can capture a diverse range of shapes. Assembled from identical cellsthat can be mass-produced, a RUM can deploy into several desired shapes, which makesthem well suited for re-usable temporary structures. We provide a computational designtool based on physical simulation, where users can interactively edit cell heights toexplore achievable deployed shapes. Numerical optimization enables designers toeasily navigate between the reconfigurable design parameters and the deployed shapespace. We validate our approach with a physical prototype and demonstrate its variousdeployed states.
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@inbook{KusupatiIsvoranuSuzukiPauly+2023+289+302,
url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111162683-022},
title = {RUM: Reconfigurable Umbrella Mesh},
booktitle = {Advances in Architectural Geometry 2023},
author = {Uday Kusupati and Florin Isvoranu and Seiichi Suzuki and Mark Pauly},
editor = {Kathrin Dörfler and Jan Knippers and Achim Menges and Stefana Parascho and Helmut Pottmann and Thomas Wortmann},
publisher = {De Gruyter},
address = {Berlin, Boston},
pages = {289--302},
doi = {doi:10.1515/9783111162683-022},
isbn = {9783111162683},
year = {2023},
lastchecked = {2024-06-03}
}