Nonlinear Kinematics of Recursive Origami Inspired by the Spidron

Non-periodic folding of periodic crease patterns paves the way to novel nonlinear phenomena that cannot be feasible through periodic folding. This paper focuses on the non-periodic folding of recursive crease patterns generalized from Spidron. Although it is known that the Spidron has a 1-DOF isotropic rigid folding motion, its general kinematics and dependence on the crease pattern remain unclear. Using the kinematics of a single unit cell of the Spidron and the recursive construction of the folded state of multiple unit cells, we consider the folding of the Spidron that is not necessarily isotropic. We found that as the number of unit cells increases, the non-periodic folding is restricted and the isotropic folding becomes dominant. Then, we analyze the three kinds of isotropic folding modes by constructing 1-dimensional dynamical systems governing each of them. We show that these systems can possess different recursive natures depending on folding modes even in an identical crease pattern. Furthermore, we show their novel nonlinear nature, including the period-doubling cascade leading to the emergence of chaos.