What is it about?

Researchers from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (JAXA) and The University of Tokyo have developed a new geometric design principle for origami structures that unfold sequentially, like falling dominoes. Conventional deployable origami structures, including the well-known Miura-ori used in space applications, typically deform as a whole during deployment. In contrast, the new “Domino Origami” unfolds progressively from one end to the other.

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Why is it important?

The key idea is to create propagating transition fronts in origami, where local changes sequentially trigger folding in neighboring parts, much like falling dominoes. While similar propagating phenomena in engineering are often driven by stored energy and mechanical instabilities, the transition fronts developed in this work arise purely from geometric constraints, without relying on energy barriers. The researchers also showed that the deployment sequence and the final deployed shape can be designed independently. This makes it possible to program not only how deployment proceeds, but also what shape the structure ultimately forms. Physical prototypes made from thick panels successfully demonstrated the predicted sequential folding and unfolding behavior.

Perspectives

Because deformation remains localized during deployment, Domino Origami can follow complex target shapes while occupying less surrounding space than conventional uniformly deforming origami. The approach could contribute to future deployable structures for space applications and to a new class of geometry-based mechanical metamaterials.

Rinki Imada
The University of Tokyo

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This page is a summary of: Programming sequential deployment of origami via kinematic transition fronts, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2615468123.
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