A growing number of autonomous systems based on a variety of structures and designs have been developed by roboticists in recent years. Among these are measured robots, which are made out of various components or “modules” that can be reconfigured to really complete explicit undertakings.
The Asian art of origami, in which paper is folded into three-dimensional decorative shapes, can serve as a useful source of inspiration for the design of modular robotic structures. This is due to the fact that it provides predefined models and patterns that can be used to transform two-dimensional sheets of materials into intricate three-dimensional structures with various mechanical properties.
Scientists at Guangzhou College, Yanshan College, and different colleges in China have as of late developed another particular persistent robot out of a progression of cylinders in view of a particular origami overlay, known as the Miura crease. In a pre-print paper that was posted on SSRN, this robot was shown to be able to contract and bend in specific patterns to complete various tasks.
“By folding a flat sheet with a specific crease pattern, you can create a three-dimensional origami tube with unique mechanical properties and wide engineering applications. In this study, a Miura-derived origami tube is built, and its precise circular closing condition and mechanical properties are studied, indicating that the origami tube has programmable stiffness characteristics.”
Junfeng He, Guilin Wen and their colleagues told.
According to Junfeng He, Guilin Wen, and their colleagues, “folding a flat sheet under a specific crease pattern may form a three-dimensional origami tube, which has been proven to exhibit unique mechanical properties and has wide engineering applications.” A Miura-derived origami tube is constructed, and its precise circular closing condition and mechanical properties are examined in this research. The results show that the origami tube has programmable stiffness characteristics.”
An origami pattern known as the Miura fold involves folding a flat surface into a structure with a smaller area. Large solar panels for satellites, which can be launched while folded on themselves and then spread out in space, are one example of a variety of technologies that may benefit from this change in shape. This fold has been used to create these technologies.
He, Wen, and their colleagues used this fold to make flexible tubes as part of their study. These tubes became the basis for their robot. A sheet of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a strong material that is sometimes used to make medical devices, pipes, and cable insulation, serves as the foundation for these tubes.
This material has a few invaluable qualities, including adaptability and a high resistance when bowed or compacted. Accordingly, the cylinders that act as the foundation of the particular robot are adaptable and can be bowed, compacted, and turned without breaking.
To evaluate the suitability of their plan and the vigor of the origami structures it depends on, the scientists made a model robot made of three adaptable cylinder modules. This robot can bend to the side and fold itself in half to shrink.
“Three separate steel wires drive every module to accomplish free compression or bowing development,” He, Wen, and their associates made sense of in their paper. “The bound-together establishment of steel wire-driven engines on the base supplies the robot with a lightweight, interconnected inward space, high versatility, and a flexible spine.”
In a series of experiments, he, Wen, and their coworkers looked at their prototype and found that it could do two different things well. The first consists of docking onto its base when in a tight space, and the second, requiring the establishment of an attractive gripper at the highest point of its construction, involves holding and lifting objects.
This new modular design that is based on origami could be used to make other robots that are good at solving different problems in the real world. Other flexible structures based on origami that could be used as the foundation of other robotic systems could be inspired by the work of this team.
More information: Junfeng He et al, A Modular Continuous Robot Constructed by Miura-Derived Origami Tubes, SSRN (2023). DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4455959
