Mori Combines and Folds Into New Robotics Applications

As reported on NCCR Robotics, the idea of origami robotic systems that can reconfigure themselves into different shapes by folding thin structure is interesting, but have some size and shape restrictions. Christoph H. Belke and Jamie Paik of the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab have come up with an innovative solution to this problem called “Mori.” It’s a thin modular robotic system that can be combined in different ways, folding itself into different shapes as needed.

Mori takes the form of two active triangular modules that can combine with four non-powered modules of the same size and shape. Depending on how they are configured, they can accomplish different tasks, such as folding into a four-sided 3D shape, lying flat, and using the non-powered modules in novel linkage configurations.

One of these driven devices, which contain sensors, actuators, and an onboard PIC24EP512GP806 MCU, can even be set up with three inactive triangles and a web cam in an active feedback loop.

This is demonstrated at 2:40 in the video below, where it’s able to control a ball rolling around on the surface of a flat piece of material, using three inactive nodes as legs.

Though fascinating with the number of nodes now available, one could imagine this expanded in the future to use many more of these devices for truly infinite configurations!

Want to read more about this impressive project? You can check out the team’s entire paper here.