If You Can Fold Paper, Why Can't You Fold Robots?

Researchers have unveiled a new approach to robotics that introduces a dynamic hundreds of years old: the paper folding craft of Japanese origami.

A team of researchers from Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Wyss Institute and MIT have designed a way of creating functioning robots made out of panels that fold and unfold like origami designs.

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When a charge is applied to the structure, the robot, which looks something like a two-dimensional spider of sorts, can get up to two inches per second

"The [microcontroller] brain triggers electricity sent to certain circuits," said research team member Sam Felton, describing the robot's self-folding mechanism during a conference call on Wednesday Read more...

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