Jafarpour Mohsen, Aryayi Mohammad, Gorb Stanislav N, Rajabi Hamed
Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Institute of Zoology, Kiel University, 24118, Kiel, Germany.
University of Burgundy, 21000, Dijon, France.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 25;14(1):29225. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-79630-6.
Spiral, one of the most well-known functional patterns in nature that can be observed in structures such as the proboscis of lepidoptera and snail shells or as vortices forming in flowing fluids, has long served as a source of inspiration for humans in the creation of numerous spiral-based designs. Double-spiral is a design derived from spirals, which has been previously presented and utilized as a compliant joint. Advantageous properties of double-spirals, such as easily adjustable design, multiple degrees of freedom, reversible extensibility, and tunable deformability make them promising candidates for the development of mechanically intelligent structures that exhibit unique behavior and reach desired functions, such as soft grippers, continuum manipulators, energy-dissipative structures, and foldable metamaterials. In this article, we first develop the Double-Spiral Design software to facilitate the design and modeling of double-spirals. We then design and manufacture five different spiral-based structures using three-dimensional (3D) printing, including (1) a freeform passive gripper, (2) a highly extensible enveloping gripper, (3) a mechanical interlocking structure, (4) an adaptive energy-dissipative structure, and (5) a compliant planar joint. Through practical experimentation, we test the functionality of the developed structures and showcase the potential of double-spirals for being used in various technical applications. This study represents a significant step towards a better understanding of double-spirals and demonstrates their broad but unexplored potential in engineering design.
螺旋是自然界中最著名的功能模式之一，在诸如鳞翅目昆虫的喙、蜗牛壳等结构中可以观察到，或者在流动流体中形成的漩涡中也能看到。长期以来，螺旋一直是人类创造众多基于螺旋的设计的灵感来源。双螺旋是一种源自螺旋的设计，此前已被提出并用作柔顺关节。双螺旋具有易于调节的设计、多个自由度、可逆的可扩展性和可调节的变形性等优点，使其成为开发具有独特行为并能实现所需功能的机械智能结构的有前途的候选者，如软夹爪、连续体操纵器、能量耗散结构和可折叠超材料。在本文中，我们首先开发了双螺旋设计软件，以方便双螺旋的设计和建模。然后，我们使用三维（3D）打印设计并制造了五种不同的基于螺旋的结构，包括（1）自由形式被动夹爪，（2）高度可扩展的包裹式夹爪，（3）机械互锁结构，（4）自适应能量耗散结构，以及（5）柔顺平面关节。通过实际实验，我们测试了所开发结构的功能，并展示了双螺旋在各种技术应用中的潜力。这项研究朝着更好地理解双螺旋迈出了重要一步，并证明了它们在工程设计中广泛但尚未被探索的潜力。
