Geometric strategies to design a bistable deployable structure with straight scissors using stiff and flexible rods

Abstract

For many years, the design of bistable deployable structures with straight scissors has been focused on evaluating the structural behaviour of rods during the deployment according to the application of loads. These structures have recently begun to be built with some rods composed of a flexible material in order to concentrate the deformations in these rods. The techniques that are currently used to design and calculate these structures require an assumption of the application of loads. In this article, two novel strategies for the design of this type of structures are proposed. The first is based on the study in situ of the structure’s deployment process and the second combines the knowledge that currently exists about the change of geometry during the deployment with FEM.