Design and Fabrication of Origami Elements for use in a Folding Robot Structure

The aim of the research is to investigate the methodology of the design and fabrication of folding robots that depend on the origami structures. The use of origami structures as a foundation to build reconfigurable and morphing robots that could assist in search and rescue (SAR) tasks are investigated. The design of the origami folding structures divided into three stages: consideration of the geometry of the origami structure, the hinge design, and the actuation system. The result of investigating three origami structures shows the ability to use the unit cell of the origami ball structure as a self-folding element. Furthermore, the novel type of origami structure for manipulation was created according to this result. This novel structure was designed to be a soft manipulation robot arm. Two approaches are used to design and fabricate flexure hinge. The first is by using a 3D printed multi-material technique. By this technique, the hinge printed using soft and solid material at the same time, which is Tango plus flx930 for soft material and Vero for solid material. The soft material act as a flexure hinge. Therefore, three tests were operated for it to calculate the tensile force, fatigue limit, and the required bend force. The second approach is by using acrylic and Kapton materials. Two types of actuation systems were studied: the external actuation system and embedded actuation system. The external actuation system was used for the Origami structure for manipulation, while the embedded actuation system was used for the self-folding structure. The shape memory alloy wires in torsion (TSW) and bending (BSW) was used in an embedded actuation system. A unit cell of origami ball was fabricated as a self-folding element by using three approaches: manually, acrylic, and Kapton and 3D printing. It is actuated by using shape memory alloy wire. Furthermore, an origami structure for manipulation was fabricated and actuated using an external actuation system. This novel type of origami structure provided an excellent bend motion ability

Design and fabrication of a foldable hexapod robot towards experimental swarm applications

Abstract — This paper presents the development of a lightweight origami-inspired foldable hexapod robot. Using a single sheet of polyester and a laser cutter, the hexapod robot can be fabricated and assembled in less than one hour from scratch. No screw or other external tools are required for as-sembly. The robot has built-in polyester fasteners considered in its crease pattern. The design uses four-bar mechanisms, which makes the robot flexible to be adjusted for different speeds or other task metrics. For a given desired locomotion velocity, various parameters of the four-bar mechanisms in the crease pattern can be modified accordingly. Design flexibility, ease of fabrication, and low cost make the robot suitable as an agent for swarm objectives. This work presents the foldable hexapod design and its kinematic analysis. The robot is fabricated, assembled, and tested for functionality. Experimental results show that the robot prototype runs with a maximum forward speed of 5 body lengths per second and turns in place with a speed of 1 revolution per second. The final robot weighs 42 grams. I