Sculptable Kaleidocycles: Visualizing Variable Cell Geometry
Vishal Chandra, Aren Martinian, and Peter Atlas

Proceedings of Bridges 2021: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Culture
Pages 205–210
Regular Papers

Abstract

Kaleidocycles, a class of ring linkages, have long been depicted as compositions of ordinary tetrahedra. However, this paradigm only depicts one part of the picture; it has been adopted only for the mathematical and graphical facility it provides. In reality, there are infinitely many geometries which satisfy the parameters of a kaleidocyclic base unit (a “cell"). The purpose of this paper is to solidify that concept by improving visualization and fabrication techniques for these "sculpted" kaleidocycles. To achieve this, ordinary kaleidocycles were first simulated in a mesh-driven environment, where their base cells were then sculpted through the use of set operations (intersection and subtraction, in particular) with other solids. The results are intriguing new objects with artistic and mechanical implications. These articulations upon ordinary kaleidocycles allow further specialization and customizability of the mechanisms, improving their applicability to various tasks.

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