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posted by janrinok on Tuesday June 02 2015, @12:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-quite-R2D2-or-C3PO dept.

Phys.org has a report on "an untethered miniature origami robot that self-folds, walks, swims, and degrades".

A demo sparking interest at the ICRA 2015 conference in Seattle was all about an origami robot that was worked on by researchers. More specifically, the team members are from the computer science and artificial intelligence lab at MIT and the department of informatics, Technische Universitat in Germany. "An untethered miniature origami robot that self-folds, walks, swims, and degrades" was the name of the paper, co-authored by Shuhei Miyashita, Steven Guitron, Marvin Ludersdorfer, Cynthia R. Sung and Daniela Rus. They focused on an origami robot that does just what the paper's title suggests. A video showing the robot in action showcases each move.

One can watch the robot walking on a trajectory, walking on human skin, delivering a block; swimming (the robot has a boat-shaped body so that it can float on water with roll and pitch stability); carrying a load (0.3 g robot); climbing a slope; and digging through a stack. It also shows how a polystyrene model robot dissolves in acetone.

The video is quite impressive!

 
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  • (Score: 2) by TK on Tuesday June 02 2015, @07:26PM

    by TK (2760) on Tuesday June 02 2015, @07:26PM (#191233)

    It reminded me of a butterfly. If its possible to make biological robots, the first place to start would naturally be an insect analog.

    That should get your spine tingling.

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