Harvard researchers have designed a new type of foldable material that is versatile, tunable and self actuated. It can change size, volume and shape; it can fold flat to withstand the weight of an elephant without breaking, and pop right back up to prepare for the next task.
A team of MIT researchers have developed a printable origami robot (2015) that folds itself up from a flat sheet of plastic when heated and measures about a centimeter from front to back.
Weighing only a third of a gram, the robot can swim, climb an incline, traverse rough terrain, and carry a load twice its weight
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Reconfigurable devices, whose shape can be drastically altered, are central to expandable shelters, deployable space structures, reversible encapsulation systems and medical tools and robots (more on link).
The folding patterns are generally very straightforward. A pattern that resurfaces in various ESA funded projects, is the "Frog Leg" pattern (Vedova et al., 2011)
The project Aeromorph (MIT Media Lab / Tangible Media Group) investigates how to make origami structure with inflatables with various materials. We introduce a universal bending mechanism that creates programmable shape-changing behaviors with paper, plastics and fabrics. We developed a software tool that generates this bending mechanism for a given geometry, simulates its transformation, and exports the compound geometry as digital fabrication files. A custom heat-sealing head that can be mounted on usual 3-axis CNC machines to precisely fabricate the designed transforming material is presented. We envision this technology could be used for designing interactive wearables, toys, and packaging industry (more on : http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/aeromorph/).
LIQUID THINGS aims at establishing materials as the starting point of the creative process in general and at the creation of a series of prototypes within an experimental framework in the context of sculptural audiovisual art in particular. The project will lay the theoretical foundations that allow the exploitation of this research context in a wider and explorative artistic practice. Furthermore, it will enhance and question the potential autonomy of the materials used in the experiments, reveal and explore the intrinsic narratives of material transformations, and finally introduce the political and philosophical dimensions implicit in the practice of material manipulation into art discourse.(more on: http://www.liquidthings.net/)
This paper describes the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) soft, inflatable structures from
thin, two-dimensional (2D) tiles fabricated from elastomeric polymers. (from: https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/16920699/96373249.pdf?sequence=2 )
Materials that couple sensing, actuation, computation, and communication
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