A bistable rolling joint for multistable structures

•A concept of using rolling joints for a multistable structure is presented.•A bistable joint is obtained by modifying the geometry of a rolling hinge.•The wire tensions and joint moment of bistable joint during the motion is obtained.•Effects of geometric parameters on the mechanical behavior are investigated.

In this paper, a concept of using rolling joints for a multistable structure, which deforms elastically into a variety of cylindrical shapes, is presented. A bistable joint is obtained by modifying the geometry of a rolling hinge. The proposed concept can hold the stable state without any continued actuation. Then detailed mathematical derivations are carried out to obtain the wire tensions and joint resultant moment during the motion, which are used to compute the external action that should be applied to move the joint. The effects of some geometric parameters on the mechanical behavior are also investigated. The results show that higher values of the wire tension and joint resultant moments can be obtained by increasing the side included angle φ or the radius of wire wrapped circles R. Moreover, the pretension of wires in the stable configuration also increases the wire tension and the joint resultant moment.

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