When a major flood or earthquake strikes, people need help-quickly. One challenge is getting to them. Roads can crack open; fields can wash away; bridges can collapse. Temporary structures haven't always proved practical- they're too flimsy or take days to set up. But Ichiro Ario and his team at Hiroshima University hope to fill that void with the Mobilebridge, a collapsible overpass that can rapidly span gaps and support cars carrying emergency supplies. Though Ario's studies in materials science and origami informed the design, the real inspiration for the accordion-like mechanism came from watching his son play with a toy pistol: Whenever he pulled the trigger, a section of the barrel would scissor out. The Mobilebridge is just 10 feet thick all folded up, but flip a switch and the steel and aluminum structure flattens out in spectacular fashion to nearly 70 feet long. "It's like a robot bridge or a bridge machine," Ario says. For a test earlier this year, workers towed the Mobilebridge by trailer to Japan's Hongo River, where installation took about an hour. That's fast-and in a real emergency, speed makes all the difference.
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