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PROVO — Solar panels that power space stations and tiny surgical tools used in hospitals have more in common than you might think, according to a team from Brigham Young University.
In both cases, you want something very small to start that can expand to be much larger once it reaches its destination. The BYU team's solution to this problem with space arrays was to design a device inspired by Japanese origami for NASA in 2013.
Now, they are applying the same idea to medical devices. Using origami techniques as a starting point, BYU mechanical engineering professors Larry Howell and Spencer Magleby worked with students to create tiny tools that can improve minimally-invasive surgery.
"(With) some of these devices you can kind of still see the origami," Howell said. "There's others where it's hard to see the origami because there are so many other things going on. It inspired the device, but it's not necessarily obvious this started there."
The BYU team has developed multiple surgical tools that are reportedly small enough to fit in incisions that can heal without sutures. Patents for several of the devices have been licensed to Intuitive Surgical, which makes the da Vinci Surgical robot. The company will likely work to get the tools into production, eventually distributing them to hospitals after further testing.
In engineering, origami functions as a compliant mechanism, which means origami-inspired devices get their motion from things that bend. One benefit is that it can slim down the number of parts needed to make a device work.
While working on improving the surgical tools, the BYU team is continuing to pursue other applications for designs inspired by origami. In addition to active projects with NASA, students are researching everything from packaging for high-end luxury products to industrial machines.
"It's really fun to see the diversity of things that we might be able to do," Howell said.
The professor said working with origami-inspired devices is enjoyable because the results are very visual and have an artistic touch, letting those who have worked on the project see what they have done and accomplished.
"The connection to the art is... kind of unusual for engineering," he said. "To be dealing with this ancient art of origami and using that to do engineering products is an unusual and fascinating thing."
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