Crease‐Encoded Soft Origami Chambers: A Unified Design‐to‐Fabrication Framework for Low‐Pressure Pneumatic Joints

Soft pneumatic actuation has long been valued for its compliance and safety, but its dependence on vacuum operation or high positive pressures constrains real‐world adoption. This work introduces origami‐based pneumatic chambers that operate at low positive pressures while retaining monolithic softness. By encoding motion directly in crease geometry, we obtain compact joints—prismatic, pivot, and helicoidal—that deliver large and directional deformations without rigid reinforcements or complex assembly steps. Through geometric modeling, finite element simulation, and experimental characterization, we demonstrate that actuation proceeds in two distinct regimes : a geometry‐dominated regime, in which crease kinematics governs the response until unfolding is complete, followed by a material‐driven regime in which hyperelastic membrane stretching dominates. Operating below 15 kPa, the three joints achieve up to 268% axial stretch, 72 (°) bending, and 55 (°) twist. These results establish origami‐based chambers as a versatile route to safe, efficient, and easily manufactured soft linkages across domains where low‐pressure actuation is preferable.