Miniature Origami Robot Self-folds, Walks, Swims, and Degrades
May 29, 2015 11:42 PM   Subscribe

Origami Robot Folds Itself Up, Does Cool Stuff, Dissolves Into Nothing [yt] - "At ICRA 2015 in Seattle yesterday, researchers from MIT demonstrated [yt] an untethered miniature origami robot that self-folds, walks, swims, and degrades. That's the title of their paper [pdf], in fact, and they delivered on all of those promises: from a flat sheet with a magnet on it, their robot folds itself up in just a few seconds, is immediately ready to zip around on land or water driven by magnetic fields, and then when you've run out of things to do with it, drive it into a tank of acetone and it'll dissolve. This is the first time that a robot has been able to demonstrate a complete life cycle like this, and eventually, it'll be doing it inside your body." (via; previously)
posted by kliuless (37 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was sad when it dissolved. I'll be useless when SkyNet goes live.
posted by chavenet at 1:00 AM on May 30, 2015 [5 favorites]


"Paperbots! Fold Out!" -Origamus Prime
posted by otherchaz at 3:11 AM on May 30, 2015 [26 favorites]


I loved the way it did a little dance and ran away when it did a thing! A little buttruffle dance!

BUT THEN

That was some straight up Judge Doom bullshit. I did not love that.




why you dead ricky?
posted by louche mustachio at 3:49 AM on May 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


It needs to fold itself into a little origami thumbs-up when it's submerged into the acetone.
posted by painquale at 4:09 AM on May 30, 2015 [26 favorites]


It will be the zenith of irony the first time someone is assassinated by a "Get Well" card that is actually one of these robots in disguise.
posted by XMLicious at 4:20 AM on May 30, 2015 [18 favorites]


"You might be wondering at this point why the folding robot is even necessary if you’ve got a magnetic field and you can just drag the magnet around with that"

I am emphatically not wondering this. I am wondering why I don't have a folding robot. It seems very necessary to me.
posted by RainyJay at 5:05 AM on May 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
posted by Sebmojo at 5:21 AM on May 30, 2015


HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

seriously that is weird and horrifying (plus somehow adorable which makes it even more weird and horrifying)

ROBOPOCALYPSE CLOCK STATUS: 11.534 PM
posted by Sebmojo at 5:22 AM on May 30, 2015


eventually, it'll be doing it inside your body.

What could possibly go wrong?
posted by Dip Flash at 6:05 AM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


Once they get the gun platform stabilization optimization completed on the jumping Cheetah-bots, they can proceed with the extermination of humanity from the outside as well as the inside!

That'll teach those Harvard assholes to laugh at MIT!
posted by briank at 6:19 AM on May 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


this totally blew my mind... but, reading the science behind it, i think it's still a long way from being as cool as it looks. It only works on the big table that contains the electromagnents. The folding aspect, and the moving aspect, are entirely unrelated. I think they could use a 3-d printed robot with a magnent to the same effect.
posted by rebent at 6:39 AM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


Surveillance; what a State.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 7:15 AM on May 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


These are way easier to make out of paper if you interpret the mountain folds as valley folds and vice versa (diagram in the first link)
posted by jabah at 7:29 AM on May 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


rebent - seems like one advantage of this over 3D printing would be more efficient storage, plus you don't have to build the magnet in (therefore it's more reusable).

I'll leave the materials people to comment more thoroughly, but this is pretty damn cool.
posted by maryr at 7:54 AM on May 30, 2015


I for one etc
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:00 AM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


"Paperbots! Fold Out!" -Origamus Prime

SOON.
posted by echocollate at 8:04 AM on May 30, 2015


You can literally call anything a robot these days.
posted by Segundus at 8:08 AM on May 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


if they can make a robot that is injected into me and fixes all my spine problems with robot magic and then dissolves into something that gives me the some kind of useful vitamins i will forgive all the past horrors of humanity in one go. WHO CARES IF THEY'RE CONTROLLING OUR MINDS WHY IS THIS EVEN AN ISSUE, you can control my mind by showing me a picture of a puppy for 2 seconds.
posted by poffin boffin at 8:44 AM on May 30, 2015 [14 favorites]


Yeah, if you carry a flask of acetone inside you and you can metabolise magnets, and you don't actually need it to do anything, then something like this might still be completely useless to you.
posted by Segundus at 8:53 AM on May 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


Segundus: "You can literally call anything a robot these days."

Once the robots become the masters, can we really call them robots anymore?
posted by symbioid at 8:54 AM on May 30, 2015


I imagine that in the robot civilization of the future, Origami Robot will be some sort of mythic martyr. Walked among us, died for your sake. Tiny vials of acetone worn as symbolic charms, etc.
posted by neroli at 8:58 AM on May 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


The.. Masterobots? Sounds too close to masturbating robots.

Wait a minute...

>_>
posted by ostranenie at 8:59 AM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


masturbating robots

I am intrigued by your views and wish to subscribe to your newsletter

poffin boffin control device
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:05 AM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


Laugh it up now, but I'll remember where I was on the day the Acetone War started.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:10 AM on May 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


Watching pug videos?
posted by poffin boffin at 9:19 AM on May 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


Don't know where he got to, Mr. Roboto.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:04 AM on May 30, 2015


masturbating robots

The future is now!
posted by Sys Rq at 10:43 AM on May 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


At last, the degradation I was promised...
posted by Segundus at 10:49 AM on May 30, 2015


masturbating robots

The Wankularity?
posted by chavenet at 11:07 AM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


OMG. As a longtime lover of robots, origami, and tiny little troupers who are just the bestest little guys in the whole wide world, this is relevant to my interests. Specifically my interests in squealing with delight as the bestest little guy in the whole wide world goes to town digging through pink stuff, carrying heavy loads with such a great attitude, swimming around a little pool, etc. ISN'T YOU THE BESTEST LITTLE GUY. I think maybe this is how other people feel about kittens?

I could have done without the Judge Doom ending though, holy cow.
posted by town of cats at 1:14 PM on May 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


why you dead ricky?

Previously.
posted by otherchaz at 1:59 PM on May 30, 2015


Every shitty robotics advance = nanobots cleaning arteries
posted by benzenedream at 2:58 PM on May 30, 2015


I for one etc
...need to finish the meme, because "origami overlords" is the coolest alliteration of 2015 so far.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:35 PM on May 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


Needs more shiny metal ass.
posted by bricksNmortar at 5:57 PM on May 30, 2015


That's not a masturbating robot, that's a sex-worker robot.

I've this idea of taking a Roomba, and covering it in "realistic" sex toys. Rubberized dongs like feelers or feathers in every which direction, silicone boobs, random disembodied orifices like the more abstract sex toys. But it wouldn't actually be useful for cleaning or pleasure. It would just wander around on the floor and bump into things and/or people. I could picture a thing like that being programmed to "masturbate" by repeatedly ramming itself into some object (something Roombas already achieve anyway).
posted by idiopath at 8:56 PM on May 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


I thought of Odradek.
posted by Baldons at 12:03 AM on May 31, 2015


Yeah, if you carry a flask of acetone inside you and you can metabolise magnets, and you don't actually need it to do anything, then something like this might still be completely useless to you.

I know media write-ups on these sorts of things jump too readily and credulously to the "one day these will solve all known problems" narrative--but your response does seem swinging a bit too far in the other direction. It's like hearing about the Wright brothers first flight and saying "yeah, sheesh, like someone can't walk 300 yards down a beach!"
posted by yoink at 7:20 AM on May 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


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