Flattening single-vertex origami: The non-expansive case (Q991180)

In the paper under review the authors answer in the affirmative a conjecture stated in [\textit{I. Streinu} and \textit{W. Whiteley}, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3742, 161--173 (2005; Zbl 1136.52312)]: A single vertex origami whose fold vertex is placed on the boundary of the paper can always be reconfigured to the flat position with a non-colliding continuous motion. In the cited paper it is shown how to reduce the problem to the carpenter's rule problem for spherical polygons. Using spherical expansive motions, the cases of open \(< \pi \) and closed \(\leqslant 2\pi \) spherical polygons are solved. In the paper under review, the authors solve the case of open polygons with total length between \([\pi ,2\pi )\), which requires non-expansive motions. The proposed motion planning algorithm works in a finite number of discrete steps, for which the precise bounds depending on both the number of links and the angle deficit are given.