Recently, the results of the 2025 Ministry of Education Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award (Natural Sciences and Engineering Technologies) were officially announced. Led by Professor Chen Yan, the project “Kinematics and Design of Thick-Panel Origami”, with Tianjin University as the sole completing institution, has been awarded the First Prize of the Natural Science Research Achievement Award. Ma Jiayao, Zhang Xiao and Gu Yuanqing are the principal contributors. As one of China’s most authoritative research awards in the field of natural science and engineering technology for universities, this prize represents high-level fundamental research achievements of high-education institutions.

Kinematic equivalence models of zero-thickness origami vertices, spatial linkages and thick-panel origami vertices, and the award certificate

        The project establishes a new kinematic model for thick-panel origami through replacing spherical linkages with spatial linkages. It reveals the kinematic equivalence among zero-thickness origami, spatial linkages, and thick-panel origami. The challenge of kinematic compatibility for mobile assemblies of spatially overconstrained linkages is overcome, yielding a design methodology for thick-panel origami structures with flat surfaces and large folding ratios. A mechanism theory for the hybrid assemblies of multi-type spatial linkages is developed, and the kinematic compatibility conditions among the multi-vertex assemblies are resolved, thus forming a flat-folding design methodology for 3D thick-panel origami that is kinematically equivalent to zero-thickness spatial origami.This research comprehensively addresses long-standing international challenges in thick-panel origami and paves the way for the engineering applications of origami technology.