Multi-stable origami with thick panels

<h2>Summary</h2> Multi-stable morphing structures can be self-locked and easily actuated and can generate impulsive motion, while thick-origami mechanisms have the practical combination of morphing ability and load-bearing capacity. In this paper, we combine the two and propose a method to design multi-stable thick-origami (MSTO) structures with arbitrarily prescribable stable configurations. Bi-stable degree-4 and tri-stable degree-6 vertices with the corresponding tessellations are designed, analyzed, manufactured, and tested. Compared to the original one-degree-of-freedom thick-origami mechanisms, the multi-stable/multi-compatible version in this paper has a larger design space with more achievable configurations due to the relaxation of compatibility constraints. In addition to the existent multi-stable origami designs, such as Kresling-ori and vertex-inverting locking designs, this work provides a new form of multi-stable origami with 2–3 arbitrarily prescribable stable configurations. Preliminary applications like self-locking deployable furniture and an impulsive gripper demonstrate the promising potential of engineering fields such as deployable architectures and robotic devices.