US EditionPolytechnique engineers design low-cost, Japanese kirigami-inspired parachute
Kirigami-inspired parachutes achieve precise drops of small payloads, reducing descent speed by more than half, enabling accurate emergency supply delivery, researchers reported.
- On Oct. 2, 2025, Polytechnique Montréal engineers unveiled a kirigami-inspired parachute, detailed in Nature and led by Danick Lamoureux.
- Drawing on kirigami, the researchers David Mélançon and Frédérick Gosselin applied mathematically optimized cuts to flat sheets, making parachutes that open into three-dimensional lattices to create drag.
- Using wind tunnels and drone drop tests, researchers validated the concept as a 1 kilogram water bottle dropped from 60 meters with a 0.5 meter parachute reached about 14 meters per second versus about 34 without.
- Researchers suggest near-term uses include humanitarian airdrops of water, food and medicine, but current prototypes rely on costly laser cutting taking about 25 minutes each, with die-cutting press as a cheaper alternative.
- For longer-term applications, the team plans to alter future cutting patterns for spirals and gliding but notes Mars’s thin atmosphere and the two-by-three-foot laser machine limit scale-up.
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6 Articles
Polytechnique engineers design low-cost, Japanese kirigami-inspired parachute
MONTREAL — Researchers at Polytechnique Montreal have created a concept for a parachute inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami, one that engineers hope could be used in everything from humanitarian airdrops to scientific exploration. The innovative project, which earned the researchers an article in the science journal “Nature,” published this week, demonstrates the new […]
Kirigami parachute suitable for humanitarian missions stabilizes quickly and doesn't pitch
A team of engineers from Polytechnique Montréal report a new and unique parachute concept inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami today in Nature. This simple, robust and low-cost approach has a wide variety of potential ...
Parachutes inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami
Cutting a pattern into a flat disc can transform it into a parachute capable of carrying small payloads, which might be used to deliver humanitarian aid Cutting a pattern into a flat disc can transform it into a parachute capable of carrying small payloads, which might be used to deliver humanitarian aid
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