MIT’s Robogami Simplifies Robot Design

While robots are becoming increasingly common, they still require a large amount of specialized knowledge to design. In order to “democratize” this process, researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created the “Interactive Robogami” system to enable anyone to design and build their own robots.

The origami-inspired system takes the form of a simplified 3D CAD package, where a library of parts can be combined into robots of different forms and complexities. The software then simulates the robot’s motion, and even suggests improvements to the user to improve the design.

Once complete, the robots are printed out as flat sections that can be folded together for easy assembly. The eventual goal of this type of technique would be for a human to design motion parameters, and the computer designs a robot to accomplish that task.

In order to implement the motion sequence, the robot requires actuators and control circuitry. According to the team’s paper, the electronics consist of an Arduino Pro Mini, servo motors, and a 3.7V lithium ion battery.

For more details, you can download the research paper here.