Perhaps it’s a fitting tribute. The Japanese–designers of some of the world’s most ingenious robots–can now watch a traditional art form get a robotic makeover. As described in a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MIT and Harvard researchers have made self-folding origami that can mold itself into a boat or an airplane. Why? Origami is just a first step; researchers picture the “shape-shifting” robots used for everything from “smart” cups that could change from grandeto venti based on how much coffee you need to a “Swiss army knife” that will bend to its user’s will, forming a variety of tools.
Study coauthor Robert Wood, an electrical engineering professor at Harvard, described the work as a proof of concept for future application.
“Imagine foregoing all the tools in your toolbox and instead using a stack of self-folding sheets to produce the tools and structures ...
