Origami robot inspired by protein folding

The advance, described in Science , demonstrates the potential to quickly and cheaply build machines that interact with the environment, and to automate much of the design and assembly process.

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The method is said to draw inspiration from self-assembly in nature, such as the way linear sequences of amino acids fold into complex proteins with sophisticated functions.

‘Getting a robot to assemble itself autonomously and actually perform a function has been a milestone we’ve been chasing for many years,’ said senior author Rob Wood, Ph.D., a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

The team included engineers and computer scientists from the Wyss Institute, SEAS, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

‘Here we created a full electromechanical system that was embedded into one flat sheet,’ lead author Sam Felton said in a statement. The team used computer design tools to inform the optimal design and fold pattern - and after about 40 prototypes, Felton honed in on the one that could fold itself up and walk away. He fabricated the sheet using a solid ink printer, a laser machine, and his hands.