Self-locking flat-packed tubular structures inspired by origami
Marie Donlon | October 10, 2024Engineers from Australia’s RMIT University have created a tubular structural system that can reportedly be both packed flat for easier transport and can pop up into strong building materials.

“This self-locking system is the result of an intelligent geometric design,” the researchers explained. “Our invention is suitable for large-scale use − a panel, weighing just 1.3 kg, made from multiple tubes can easily support a 75 kg person.”
The team added that flat-pack tubes are employed in a host of engineering and scientific applications — for instance biomedical devices, aerospace structures, robotics and civil construction, such as pop-up buildings as part of disaster recovery efforts. However, the engineers suggest that the new design makes these tubes quicker and easier to assemble, and they possess the ability to automatically transform into a strong, self-locked state.
“When NASA deploys solar arrays, for example, the booms used are tubes that were packed flat before being unfurled in space,” the team added. “These tubes are hollow though, so they could potentially deform under certain forces in space. With our new design, these booms could be a stronger structure.”
Further, the team noted that a smart algorithm allowed for control over how the design performed under forces by altering the tube orientations.
The tubes are detailed in the article “Self-locking and stiffening deployable tubular structures,” which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).