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Dexterous robot conquers art of origami
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Will Knight
A robot that can make delicate paper models using the ancient
Japanese art of origami has
been developed by a US student.
Origami involves folding and sometimes tearing
paper to build three dimensional models of animals, people and other objects.
It may be relatively simple for a skilled human to make such paper structures,
but origami is a new challenge for robots.
This is because robots are normally required to manipulate rigid materials,
not flimsy and flexible paper. Modelling the creation of an origami model
is also mathematically and computationally complex.
But Devin Balkcom, a student at
Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, US, designed and built a robot capable of making simple
origami objects, such as planes and
hats, as part of his research into robot dexterity. The robot holds the paper
using a suction cup and creates folds by pushing the paper into slots.
Rabbit ear
"Our primary interest in origami is manipulation," Balkcom writes on his
web page. "We are currently working on understanding
more complicated origami skills
- like reverse folding, squash folding, the rabbit ear, and prayer folding
- that require the simultaneous manipulation of multiple non-colinear creases."
Also posted to the website are two videos showing the robot constructing
an airplane as well as a hat (Quicktime required).
Huosheng Hua, a robotics researcher at the
University of Essex in the UK, says
building robots that can manipulate difficult materials will be important
if we want them to operate in ordinary human environments. "A five or six
year old child can tie their shoe lace, but no robot can do it," he told
New Scientist "The material is just too flexible."
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