The latest project researchers from Harvard University and MIT are working at is a origami-inspired robot that self-assembles and then walks away under its own power. Even though it’s still in the experimental stage, the prototype could be the next ground-braking discovery in the world of engineering.
The team of engineers used little more than paper and Shrinky dinks - the classic children’s toy that shrinks when heated - to build a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes flat, and crawls away without any human intervention. According to its creators, the discovery demonstrates the potential to quickly and cheaply build sophisticated machines that interact with the environment, and to automate much of the design and assembly process.
It would seem getting a robot to assemble itself autonomously and actually perform a function has been a milestone scientists have been chasing for many years. “Imagine a ream of dozens of robotic satellites sandwiched together so that they could be sent up to space and then assemble themselves remotely once they get there. They could take images, collect data, and more,” said lead author Sam Felton, a doctoral student at Applied Sciences at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
Engineers claim the new robot is the first that builds itself and performs a function without human intervention. You see, it looks like a lot of Hollywood’s directors out there might’ve got it all wrong when they thought robots would actually be muscle cars that are able to transform themselves. Well, now we know how future machines might actually be like in the future, which is origami-inspired self-folding ones. Just take a look at the video below and learn about it yourself.
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