The origami robot folds itself

For many years, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Harvard has been working on creating origami robots that would be able to fold themselves into an arbitrary shape.

On August 7, they report that they have overcome the final frontier: a robot, almost entirely made of parts made using a laser cutter, can fold itself and crawl. In addition to the main parts used batteries.

“The most exciting thing is that you yourself create this device, which in a few minutes turns from a flat state into a volumetric one and can even move,” said Daniel Ruz and Erna Viterbi, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.
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Rus began working with Erik Damein, a professor at MIT, and three other Harvard researchers - with Sam Felton, Michael Toli, and Rob Wood.

At the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, this spring, Rus, Demaine, Wood, and five other MIT and Harvard researchers provided documentation on robots that could independently be assembled from materials previously cut on a laser cutter.



The robot is built of five layers of materials. The middle layer is made of copper, it is clamped above and below by two layers of paper: the outer layers consist of a polymer that folds when heated.

After laser cutting of laminated materials, a microprocessor and several small motors are attached to the surface. This model uses two engines, each of which controls two legs on each side of the robot; engines are synchronized with a microprocessor. Each leg, in turn, has eight mechanical connections that transmit force from the engine to the legs.



The design of this robot must demonstrate not only the ability to generate motion, but also the ability to create something flat, something volumetric.

Info taken from Phys.org.
Translation and article prepared by the Telebreeze Team
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