Design Methodology for Constructing Multi-Material Origami Robots and Machines
Robotic origami allows rapid prototyping of intelligent machines and robots constructed by thin sheets of functional materials. Multi-material-based design freedom of origami robots creates functional versatility; however, the design parameters pose challenges in their mechanical layout and fabrication. While conventional robot design follows a coherent and well-established design process, the construction of origami robots requires close study of their 3D and 2D geometries, compliant mechanisms, functional material-specific components, and 2D fabrication methods. In this article, we report a systematic design methodology for building origami-inspired machines and robots based on these four essential design features. We provide their comprehensive formulation, comparing to conventional robots and highlighting design challenges as well as potentials. We demonstrate the applicability of our procedure to the majority of origami robots in the literature and also validate it by designing a centimeter-scale jumping and crawling origami robot, Tribot as showcase. The 6 g Tribot crawls with fixed steps in closed-loop, adjusts its vertical jumping height by power modulation and overcomes obstacles of 45 mm high by side jumps. This work advances design and fabrication methodology of origami robots, with customizable functionality from the ground-up