Despite recent advances in AI, if someone says "robot" most of us are likely to think of C-3PO, Ava from Ex Machina or the emotionally -- but not sexually -- responsive little helper Pepper.
But researchers at the Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory (RRL) in the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland are busy working on a new army of bots that are actually taking cues from origami-crafting and insects rather than the realms of sci-fi.
Known as robogami, these robots are light, flat and foldable. Recently unveiled at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tribot is the latest innovation from professor Jamie Paik's origami robot team. Modelled after an inchworm, origami and a flea, it can crawl and jump up to seven times its own height, and doesn't need to be reset between jumps.
At 2cm tall and weighing 4 grams, its minuscule dimensions required some special engineering. Rather than utilising conventional motors, the team behind Tribot crafted a special kind of actuator and intelligent springs from shape memory alloy. The alloy is formed from nickel and titanium and can remember its original shape even after it's been manipulated and deformed.
Tribot's flat-pack structure particularly lends itself to being produced on a large scale and its parts could even be 3D printed. "Just like Ikea furniture, these robots could be shipped in flat layers that could then be easily assembled," Paik said.
Robots inspired by origami are nothing new and they have a variety of potential applications. A team of researchers at MIT and Harvard have been working on combining electrical engineering and origami since way back in 2010. In May this year they claimed to have reached a "milestone" after creating a robot that can fold itself up and scuttle away.
Made from a thin sheet of PVC and a magnet, the robot moves around land and water and is driven by magnetic fields. It is able to carry out complex tasks such as picking up and delivering objects, carrying loads twice its weight and follow specific trajectories. In the future it could be put to work inside the human body.
The next steps for Paik's robogami army are getting them fitted with a wider range of sensors, like accelerometers, teaching them how to climb over rough terrain and encouraging them to interact with one another.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
