Mechanical behavior of a deployable origami flexible arm for space capture

Origami-inspired deployable structures hold great promise for aerospace applications. This study presents an origami flexible arm with a hybrid vertex topology and multilayer configuration, analyzed through a nonlinear mechanical framework based on the Lagrangian theory. The flexible arm is constructed by circumferentially assembling multiple symmetric origami units with combined crease patterns. The structure is discretized into nodes, bar elements, and surface elements, and its global topology is defined by geometric constraints. A bar–hinge model is adopted to represent the in-plane and out-of-plane bending behavior under large displacements, incorporating the nonlinear constitutive effect of panel thickness to eliminate local interference during deployment. The equilibrium equations are linearized via Taylor expansion for stiffness and stability analysis. Numerical simulations and experimental validation demonstrate good agreement, confirming the model’s ability to capture the key mechanical responses of the flexible arm. Furthermore, the overall stiffness can be programmably tuned by adjusting geometric parameters, providing theoretical guidance for the design and optimization of deployable origami mechanisms in space applications.