Origami robot

Making a robot capable of manipulating a material as delicate and as flexible as paper is no trivial task. As New Scientist notes:

. . . robots are normally required to manipulate rigid materials, not flimsy and flexible paper. Modelling the creation of an origami model is also mathematically and computationally complex.

But Devin Balkcom, a student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, designed and built a robot capable of making simple origami objects, such as planes and hats, as part of his research into robot dexterity. The robot holds the paper using a suction cup and creates folds by pushing the paper into slots.

Balkcom's website is here. Human folders need not fear obsolescence quite yet, however:

We are currently working on understanding more complicated origami skills (like reverse folding, squash folding, the rabbit ear, and prayer folding) that require the simultaneous manipulation of multiple non-colinear creases.

These are essential for making all but the simplest origami models. In addition to Balkcom's links, check out origami.com -- an excellent resource (for humans).

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