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August 8, 2014

Scientists make robots that make themselves

  • Using hobby shop materials that cost about $100, the robot transforms from flat paper to jitterbugging four-legged robot in just four minutes.
    • By SETH BORENSTEIN
    AP Science Writer

    WASHINGTON — In what may be the birth of cheap, easy-to-make robots, researchers have created complex machines that transform themselves from little more than a sheet of paper and plastic into walking automatons.

    Borrowing from the ancient Japanese art of origami, children's toys and even a touch of the “Transformers” movies, scientists and engineers at Harvard and MIT created self-assembling, paper robots. They are made out of hobby shop materials that cost about $100. After the installation of tiny batteries and motors, a paper robot rises on four stumpy legs and starts scooting in a herky-jerky manner. It transforms from flat paper to jitterbugging four-legged robot in just four minutes.


     
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