US Patent Issued to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Toyota Jidosha Kabuhiki on July 7 for "Morphing origami structures" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,673,595, issued on July 7, was assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano, Texas) and Toyota Jidosha Kabuhiki Kaisha (Toyota, Japan).

"Morphing origami structures" was invented by Yuyang Song (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Shinnosuke Shimokawa (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A morphing structure includes a tessellation origami structure with a plurality of polygons having a plurality of outer polygon facets, and a plurality of inflatable cells attached to the plurality of outer polygon facets. The plurality of inflatable cells are selectively inflatable such that the morphing structure is an in...