Reshaping into 3D?

Saw this kind of thing proposed for packaging, with an Origami template,  could it work?

 Your Next Wooden Chair Could Arrive Flat, Then Dry into a 3D Shape

American Chemical Society

August 23, 2022

Researchers at Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a process in which flat wooden shapes produced by three-dimensional (3D) printers can be programmed to transform into complex 3D shapes. The researchers used a water-based “ink” comprised of wood-waste microparticles and plant-based binders in the printers; they found the pathway of the ink, print speed, and stacking of printed layers determined the final shape of the printed piece as its moisture content evaporates, and that these factors can be controlled to produce different shapes. Said Eran Sharon, one of the project’s principal investigators, “We hope to show that under some conditions we can make these elements responsive—to humidity, for example—when we want to change the shape of an object again.”  .... '

Origami Comes to Robotic Life

Soft animated modeling built in origami.

Origami Comes to Life with Shape-Changing Materials

University of Colorado Boulder, Daniel Strain, July 20, 2021

University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) researchers have developed paper-thin, shape-changing objects that could lead to books in which origami figures fly off the page. These "Electriflow" designs, which include origami cranes, flowers, and butterflies, were inspired by soft robotic artificial muscles developed at CU Boulder, which do not require motors or mechanical parts. Eric Acome of Artimus, commercial supplier of the artificial muscles, said, "They're just pouches, but depending on the shape of that pouch, you can generate different kinds of movement." CU Boulder's Purnendu said, "This system is very close to what we see in nature. We're pushing the boundaries of how humans and machines can interact."

Origami Based Tire Design

Had not heard of such a design.   Pictures and some stats at the link.

Origami based tires can change shape while a vehicle is moving  by Bob Yirka , Tech Xplore

A team of researchers affiliated with Seoul National University, Harvard University and Hankook Tire and Technology Co. Ltd., has developed a tire based on an origami design that allows for changing the shape of a tire while a vehicle is moving. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes their new tire design and how well it worked when tested.

Origami is an art that involves folding paper to create a desired shape or figure. Originating with Japanese artists hundreds of years ago, it has become an international pastime. In more recent years, it has caught the interest of engineers who have used origami designs to create usable objects out of plastics and metals. In this new effort, the researchers have extended an origami design called a waterbomb tessellation—it involves creating a single wheel that can have two configurations depending on how it is used by a person holding it. The researchers have ramped up the design by making its facets out of metals such as aluminum and connecting them together using other materials.

The researchers realized the design in a variety of sizes—some of which were as large as automobile tires. The design could switch between configurations while bearing a heavy load and while serving as tires on a vehicle in motion. To test the capabilities of the design, they created several wheels that served as tires on a variety of vehicles. In all cases, the main difference between the two configurations was height. They demonstrated, for example, a vehicle sporting the specialized tires in the tall configuration as it approached a low underpass—too low for the vehicle to drive under with its initial configuration. The driver switched the tires to the low configuration as the vehicle was still moving, allowing the vehicle to pass beneath the underpass.  ... ' 

Self-Folding Nanotech Creates Origami Bird

A combination of favorite topics,  small robots(nanoscale here) and Origami representations. Includes images and video of their prposed development and use.

Self-Folding Nanotech Creates Origami Bird, Presages Nanoscale Robots  By Cornell Chronicle.  March 18, 2021

Cornell researchers have created micron-sized shape memory actuators that enable atomically thin two-dimensional materials to fold themselves into 3D configurations. All they require is a quick jolt of voltage. Once the material is bent, it holds its shape.

As a demonstration, the team created what is potentially the world's smallest self-folding origami bird.

The group describes their work in "Micrometer-Sized Electrically Programmable Shape Memory Actuators for Low-Power Microrobotics," published in Science Robotics.

The research is a step in "learning how to construct machines that are as small as cells," says Paul McEuen, the John A. Newman Professor of Physical Science at Cornell University.

The actuators consist of a nanometer-thin layer of platinum capped with a titanium or titanium dioxide film. Several rigid panels of silicon dioxide glass sit atop those layers. When a positive voltage is applied to the actuators, oxygen atoms are driven into the platinum and swap places with platinum atoms. This oxidation process causes the platinum to expand on one side in the seams between the inert glass panels, which bends the structure into its predesignated shape. ... 

From Cornell Chronicle: Full article

Origami Inspired Grip

 Enjoy the inspiration of origami in design and modeling interaction. 

An origami-inspired robotic fingertip with shape-morphing capabilities   by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

To perform tasks that involve moving or handling objects, robots should swiftly adapt their grasp and manipulation strategies based on the properties of these objects and the environment surrounding them. Most robotic hands developed so far, however, have a fixed and limiting structure; thus, they can perform a limited number of movements and can only grasp specific types of objects.

Researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have recently developed a robotic fingertip that can change its shape and switch across three different configurations, which could allow it to grasp a broader variety of objects. This fingertip's unique design, outlined in a paper presented at this year's IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), is inspired by origami, the renowned Japanese art of paper folding .... " 

Papercraft Inspired Math

I had previously reported on the use of Origami and Kirigami for real problems,  here more out of Harvard:

Papercraft-inspired math turns any sheet into any shape
Algorithms would just have to determine when to make the right cuts.

By Jon Fingas, @jonfingas    in Engadget

You might not need exotic manufacturing techniques to produce custom-shaped objects. If Harvard scientists have their way, you could start with little more than a sheet and some math. They've created a math framework that borrows from the Japanese papercraft technique of kirigami (which uses strategic cuts to produce art) to transform any sheet into any shape. Effectively, it involves designing backwards -- the intended shape is the last part of the process. ... " 

Self Folding Origami

Consider the materials implications.

CMU Researchers Create Self-Folding Origami, Try for Pasta That Shapes as it Cooks 

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
BY Aaron Aupperlee

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU's) Human-Computer Interaction Institute have created origami that folds itself, in a project presented at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Montreal this week. The team believes the work could enable flat pasta that takes shape when cooked, flat satellites that unfold in space, and furniture that assembles itself inside homes. The lab created the self-folding shapes using a three-dimensional (3D) printer; researchers noticed a problem with edges and surfaces warping, "but we've taken this disadvantage and turned it to our advantage," says CMU researcher Lining Yao. The researchers control the printer's speed and use some materials found to warp and others that do not; when the printed objects are placed in hot water, some of the material warps and some does not, creating a 3D shape. .... " 

Harvard's MilliDelta Robotics

Ultimately the very small may be more important than robots at human scale ...

Harvard's milliDelta Robot Is Tiny and Scary Fast    By Evan Ackerman

Harvard's milliDelta is a millimeter-scale delta robot based on origami-inspired engineering that can reach velocities of 0.45 m/s and accelerations of 215 m/s².

In terms of sheer speed and precision, delta robots are some of the most impressive to watch. They’re also some of the most useful, for the same reasons—you can see them doing pick-and-place tasks in factories of all kinds, far faster than humans can. The delta robots that we’re familiar with are mostly designed as human-replacement devices, but as it turns out, scaling them down makes them even more impressive. In Robert Wood’s Microrobotics Lab at Harvard, researcher Hayley McClintock has designed one of the tiniest delta robots ever. Called milliDelta, it may be small, but it’s one of the fastest moving and most precise robots we’ve ever seen. .... "

(Pics and video at the link)  .... 

A Theory of Origami

A continued follow of the idea, we examined it for possible packaging applications.

The Atomic Theory of Origami  In Quantum Magazine
By Marcus Woo    Contributing Writer

By re imagining the kinks and folds of origami as atoms in a lattice, researchers are uncovering strange behavior hiding in simple structures. .... "

MIT Origami Robotics

The concept is a long time follow.

MIT Origami Robot Transforms to Become a Boat, a Glider, or a Wheel.    By Luke Dormeh

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are making our geeky childhood dreams come true by building real-life Transformers-style robots. No, their creations don’t physically resemble Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and the gang, but they possess something much better: A shape-shifting ability that allows the cuboid bot to smoothly transform between different forms of locomotion, depending on what task it needs to carry out. Dubbed “Primer,” the robot uses sheets of smart material which fold into specific shapes when controlled by magnets — to allow the robot to walk, roll, sail, and glide.

“We’ve developed a system of fabricating robots that lets you have a simple robotic body that you can add special accessories to, which give it the ability to do a wide range of tasks,” Dr. Shuhei Miyashita, a former postdoc at MIT CSAIL, who is now a lecturer at the University of York, told Digital Trends. “Specifically, the accessories are thin pieces of plastic that, when heated, fold themselves up into exoskeletons that allow the robot to walk, roll, and do other actions.”

Origami Robots Moving Without Battery Power

Following uses of origami folding methods for simplifying robotics.   See much written before on this space regarding practical Origami, at the tag below.

Harvard's Folding Origami Robot can move without Requiring Battery Power     By Luke Dormehl   ....

New Origami Folding Algorithm

A favorite and surprisingly useful topic.  Heard of this being developed.  'Any structure' is an interesting statement,  but will the folding itself be usefully practical?   Even so a remarkable result.

New Algorithm Generates Folding Patterns to Produce Any 3-D Origami Structure   By TechXplore 

In a 1999 paper, Erik Demaine—now an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, but then an 18-year-old PhD student at the University of Waterloo, in Canada—described an algorithm that could determine how to fold a piece of paper into any conceivable 3-D shape.

It was a milestone paper in the field of computational origami, but the algorithm didn't yield very practical folding patterns. Essentially, it took a very long strip of paper and wound it into the desired shape. The resulting structures tended to have lots of seams where the strip doubled back on itself, so they weren't very sturdy.

At the Symposium on Computational Geometry in July, Demaine and Tomohiro Tachi of the University of Tokyo will announce the completion of a quest that began with that 1999 paper: a universal algorithm for folding origami shapes that guarantees a minimum number of seams. .... " 

The Origami Revolution

An informative video on PBS today regarding the use of Origami as a design methodology, how research on origami based models is progressing and a number of good examples.  Very well done.   We explored this for some packaging innovation proposals. Note this means of access to the video appears to expire on March 1,  2017.

The Origami Revolution  PBS 
Video duration: 53:50 Aired: 02/15/17 Expires: 03/01/17
Rating: NR Video has closed captioning. .... 

Engineers are using origami to design drugs, micro-robots, and future space missions. ... . "

Note also on Origami at MIT.  Links to free MIT talks and materials via Erik Demaine.

Swarming, Folding Robotics

 Quite a trick to consider:

Harvard Building Swarm of Self-Folding Origami Robots

One of the challenges with swarms of robots is manufacturing and deploying the swarm itself. Even if the robots are relatively small and relatively simple, you're still dealing with a large number of them, and every step in building the robots or letting them loose is multiplied over the entire number of bots in the swarm. The dream for swarm robotics is to be able to do away with all of that, and just push a button and have your swarm somehow magically appear. We're not there yet, but we're getting close: Harvard researchers recently demonstrated a collective robot swarm that can be manufactured in a single composite sheet. On command, they'll rip themselves apart from each other, fold themselves up into origami structures, and head off on a mission en masse.  ... " 

McDonalds Happy Meal VR Viewers

In Fast Codesign:  In what seems to be a trend, McDonalds is testing cardboard VR headsets to be used with smartphones,  fashioned origami style from happy meal boxes.  Will this convert kids to avid VR users?    Something similar just announced by Coke, using their drink boxes.  Re purposing packaging is an interesting eco trend.

Turn Your Coke Packaging into a VR Viewer

More engagement with Virtual Reality .  Will this drive the acceptance of VR as interface?

In Fortune: 
You can’t buy the world a Coke, but maybe you could see the world in virtual reality while you sip your Coke. ... That seems to be the idea behind the new designs Coca-Cola  KO 0.12%  just released that would turn some of the company’s cardboard packaging into foldable, origami-style virtual reality glasses for smartphones.   ... " 
  (includes video of process at the link)

Self Assembling Robots

Reported in CWorld:  " ... Scientists create self-assembling, working robots ... These origami robots can fold up and walk away ...  Then add to the mix that it's a laser-cut origami robot and you have the new robotic technology created by a team of engineers from Harvard, the Wyss Institute and MIT.... "  Self assembly is such a biological, powerful notion.  Even scary when taken to to its eventual endpoint.  Not self replication here, but self assembling.  In particular for spacecraft applications that have tight limits in their form and volume requirements.  More detailed Wyss Institute report.

Origami and Math

 From the BBC:   Better Origami and the intricate relationship of form in nature and mathematics.  The folding of paper, genes and telescopes. " ... Paper folding isn’t just an art, it can help fit everything on spacecraft from solar panels to telescope mirrors. Two scientists say they have devised a better way for knowing when to fold them. ... "

Printable Paper Robots

A simple idea.  An MIT project that aims to create such devices by 2017.    Directionally interesting, but does not seem to be very practical.  Though as the example suggests, disposable mobile sensors might be the ideal initial example ...  " ... Today, MIT announced a new project, "An Expedition in Computing Printable Programmable Machines," that aims to give everyone a chance to have his or her own robot.  Need help peering into that unreasonably hard-to-reach cabinet, or wiping down your grimy 15th-story windows? Walk on over to robo-Kinko’s to print, and within 24 hours you could have a fully programmed working origami bot doing your dirty work.  "No system exists today that will take, as specification, your functional needs and will produce a machine capable of fulfilling that need," MIT robotics engineer and project manager Daniela Rus said. ... "

Origami Robotics

We examined this idea broadly years ago, could the concept of Orgami be used to deliver certain forms of packaging?  The concept here is very different, but with similar design inspiration:   In IEEE Spectrum:

" ... Harvard University researchers have manufactured beautiful (and superbly functional) air-powered origami robotic actuators out of paper and elastic materials. The team of engineers and chemists built these “soft pneumatic actuators” by combining paper with a silicone elastomer called Ecoflex in a mold and casting a structure that contains a pneumatic network. The process is fast, easy, and inexpensive. When the pneumatic networks are inflated with an external source of air, the elastomer expands, creating an actuator.... "