Plant-mimicking robots use the art of origami

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research 1:39 Plant-mimicking robots use the art of origami

By:

Clark Dehart

14 Dec 2023 449

Suyi Li, associate professor in Mechanical Engineering, is collaborating on a project that will produce robotics that mimic plants to work in the field. Dr. Li is collaborating with Clemson professor Ian Walker. Their work is being advanced thanks to a 4-year, $840,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

I grew up from East Asia, from China, and where, you know, origami is a big part of our life. And then I start to see lots of potential advantages of using origami for robots. I'm Suyi Li and I am an Associate Professor here at Virginia Tech in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. One of the reason we decide to go with a plant-mimicking growing robot, is that we see there was lots of demand outside for environmental monitoring protections. The solution we came up with is to use this very nice folding procedure of origami or yoshimura. We can gradually unfold that structure and then pop up that up into a permanent load bearing structure, like a cylindrical shape. And then they can collect data all the time in a very energy efficient and self sufficient way. So our collaborator is Dr. Ian Walker from Clemson University. His part is to develop that fine part of the robot. That can work together with the origami growing trunk. And then we can have sensors on the vine to perform that environmental monitoring mission that we've been talking about. It's like you have this kind of flavor of arts. This project also have natures inside, but you still have the hardcore engineer, the mechanics, the actuators, and all the stuff, that you know, as an engineer, we really want to get into. So this combination of different elements, just makes this project so unique and interesting.

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