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Self-Folding 'Origami Robot' Smart Sheet
Programmable matter by folding demonstrates single thin sheet composed of interconnected triangular sections can act as a self-folding 'origami robot'.
This research was underway last year; see InfoChemistry And Self-Folding Origami for more information.
(Self-Folding 'Origami Robot')
Robert Wood, associate professor of electrical engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and Daniela Rus, a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at MIT and co-director of the CSAIL Center for Robotics, envision creating "smart" cups that could adjust based upon the amount of liquid needed or even a "Swiss army knife" that could form into tools ranging from wrenches to tripods."The process begins when we first create an algorithm for folding," explains Wood. "Similar to a set of instructions in an origami book, we determine, based upon the desired end shapes, where to crease the sheet."
The sheet, a thin composite of rigid tiles and elastomer joints, is studded with thin foil actuators (motorized switches) and flexible electronics. The demonstration material contains twenty-five total actuators, divided into five groupings. A shape is produced by triggering the proper actuator groups in sequence.
To initiate the on-demand folding, the team devised a series of stickers, thin materials that contain the circuitry able to prompt the actuators to make the folds. This can be done without a user having to access a computer, reducing "programming" to merely placing the stickers in the appropriate places. When the sheet receives the proper jolt of current, it begins to fold, staying in place thanks to magnetic closures.
"Smart sheets are Origami Robots that will make any shape on demand for their user," says Rus. "A big achievement was discovering the theoretical foundations and universality of folding and fold planning, which provide the brain and the decision making system for the smart sheet."
Science fiction writers have worked with similar ideas when writing about Transformers and shape-shifting devices like the soft weapon from Larry Niven's 1967 short story of the same name.
Imagine combining this technique with e-paper displays; William Gibson describes a polycarbon phone screen in his 1986 novel Count Zero:
"We'll key that to the image on this phone." He took an elegant modular unit from the bag and placed it in front of her. A paper thin polycarbon screen unfurled silently from the top of the unit and immediately grew rigid. She had once watched a butterfly emerge into the world, and seen the transformation of its drying wings. "How is that done?" she asked, tentatively touching the screen. It was like thin steel."One of the new polycarbon variants," he said, "one of the Maas products...
(Read more about William Gibson's polycarbon phone screen)
Update: See also this video of the Replicators from Stargate for some ideas about how folding origami-style robots could work in the future:
See also other comments below - thanks everyone. End update.
Via Eurekalert; thanks to Moira and Michael McGuire for writing in about this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/30/2010)
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