Design of a Bi-stable Dome for Lightweight Modular Structures

A typical example of bi-stability can be observed in the metal lid of a tin can, which can be pressed into a stable inverted shape and then returned to its original form. Interestingly, restoring the lid from its inverted state is easily achieved by pressing near its base rather than at the centre of its top surface, exploiting local instability to trigger a global shape change. Inspired by the bi-stable behaviour of a metal lid, this work shows that the mechanism under consideration offers a simple yet robust route to achieve bi-stability without complex materials or actuation systems to design modular, reconfigurable structures that can be assembled and reconfigured via geometric constraints and localized actuation.