I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid I could not get a handle on Shrinky Dinks. Every time I popped one into the oven it would contort itself beyond all recognition. These cut-outs from MIT do the same thing when exposed to heat — well, sort of. Instead of getting all twisted and gross, they fold themselves into awesome shapes.
The careful folding action is the result of meticulously calculated creases that are printed or laser-cut into sheets of either PVC that’s sandwiched between layers of rigid polyester films. When exposed to temperatures between 55 to 120 ºC, the middle part of the plastic shape contracts and bends at different angles according to the width of each crease. The process takes only a couple of minutes, and eventually the plastic molds itself into the proper shape.
Check it out in action:
The team will present their work this week at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Hong Kong, and will share ways to create self-folding electronic components like sensors and actuators. They hope that this technology will improve the availability and ease of robot development, particularly for people who want to build their own bots but who lack the technical know-how.
“What we would like is to provide design tools that allow people who are not experts to create their own machines,” says lead researcher Daniela Rus said. “My own dream is to make it easy and inexpensive to create robots.”
(via 3Ders.org and New Scientist, image via MIT)
- Make sure all these robots get electronic skin to match
- A Build-Your-Own-Robot kit will be commercially available by the end of the year
- Let’s watch the Gymnast Robot totally screw up the landing
