A crawling robot driven by a folded self-sustained oscillator

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple, origami-inspired crawling robot that uses a self-sustained oscillator for movement, eliminating electronics and enabling low-cost, easy fabrication for extreme environments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel origami-based, electronic-free crawling robot driven by a self-sustained oscillator, simplifying fabrication and expanding potential applications.

Findings

Robot weighs about 3.8 grams

Cost is approximately US $1

Operates without electronics or magnetic components

Abstract

Locomotive robots that do not rely on electronics and/or electromagnetic components will open up new perspectives and applications for robotics. However, these robots usually involve complicated and tedious fabrication processes, limiting their applications. Here, we develop an easy-to-fabricate crawling robot by embedding simple control and actuation into origami-inspired mechanisms through folding, eliminating the need for discrete electronics and transducers. Our crawling robot locomotes through directional friction propelled by an onboard origami self-sustained oscillator, which generates periodic actuation from a single source of constant power. The crawling robot is lightweight (~ 3.8 gram), ultra low-cost (~ US $1), nonmagnetic, and electronic-free; it may enable practical applications in extreme environments, e.g., large radiation or magnetic fields. The robot can be fabricated through a monolithic origami-inspired folding-based method with universal materials, i.e., sheet materials and conductive threads. This rapid design and fabrication approach enables the programmable assembly of various mechanisms within this manufacturing paradigm, laying the foundation for autonomous, untethered robots without requiring electronics.