We have designed and built an origami robot that gets up and goes. In other words, the robot forms itself, on the spot, accomplishes tasks and then it disappears by degradation. The robot self-assembles using a folding process that is triggered by heating. After this the robot can run along designated trajectories, it can carry objects, it can clear obstacles and it can swim. It can execute a variety of tasks and when these tasks are done the robot can recycle itself by dissolving its body into a liquid. This is the first robotic device that completes a full life-cycle from birth to its death. Typical robots consists of electronic devices. Our robot is made based on controllable materials; this is the biggest difference. The robots body has embedded in it a small magnet. This allows us to control the robot by programming a magnetic field. In other words, the robot has external, programmable actuation. Currently the robot is controlled remotely by a person. We’d like to advance this robot and make it more intelligent.

Such that it can make decisions by itself. Origami inspired robot designs have the potential to be faster, cheaper, and easier to fabricate than robots created using traditional manufacturing processes. It is easier for such a system to be used closer to humans such as in the human body. For example you could regard this robot as a controllable drug capsule or a surgical tool which can be removed after its used in the body.

You can imagine ingesting these robots and then controlling where they travel in the body. Once they arrive at the correct location they could form themselves into active instruments that can actually manipulate and help through the healing processes. For the short-term we see these robots as potentially extremely useful in inspection tasks because they are small and they can travel through very intricate and small narrow pipelines that are difficult to inspect with today’s technology..