Pop-Up Books Inspire New Mass-Production Method

摘要

CAMBRIDGE, MA - A new technique inspired by pop-up books and origami will soon allow clones of robotic insects to be mass-produced by the sheet. The layering and folding process enables the rapid fabrication of a broad range of electromechanical devices. Engineers at the Microrobotics Laboratory at Harvard University have been working for years to build bio-inspired, bee-sized robots that can fly and behave autonomously as a colony. Less than a year ago, the group was using a painstaking and error-prone method to fold, align and secure each of the minuscule parts and joints.