Dr. Kling founded Folded Structures Company in 2003 to advance the commercial applications of folding tessellations. Through four NASA SBIR awards, numerous algorithms and theoretical advances have been made in software, machine design, materials characteristics, and the deployable architectures needed for space-based applications. Many patents have been awarded in these areas. FSC’s software module FoldStar® enables users to design folding tessellations effortlessly by entering intuitive cross-section data. The software then extrapolates to the determined foldable structure and displays the folding process.

Topological Data Analysis:Dr. Kling holds patented methods for enhancing and extracting morphological features in data images using convolutions with local homological Betti numbers. The technique enables the user to describe and extract the data features of interest directly, with applications for tissue diagnosis in medical imagery. Through two Army STTR awards the topological methods were extended and adapted for detection of contaminant plumes in hyperspectral infrared data. On difficult datasets the new algorithms was shown to outperform the baseline methodology (Adaptive Cosine Estimator / ACE) by an order of magnitude. Robotic Systems:In robotics Dr. Kling patented a new class of robotic systems termed the Robotic Surface. This generalizes the gantry crane and XY-table, where two-parameter control enables the robotic head to move anywhere in a plane. For the Robotic Surface, any number of heads can operate in the same plane with two-parameter control, moving independently in any path trajectories on the plane, including weaving, encircling, and arbitrary path configurations. This enables queuing, circulation, real-time independent modification of head paths, and other scheduling efficiencies. It also introduces cooperative behavior between heads capable of translating and rotating in the same parameter space. The device uses a fixed planar armature and a novel toroidal wheel securing each head to the plane.