A Thickness-Invariant Origami Robot With Integrated Actuation and Multimodal Locomotion

Origami robots possess the potential for advanced reconfigurability in various contexts and environments. This paper describes and demonstrates the function of an origami robot following a thickness-invariant version of the Yoshimura tessellation. This thickness-invariance allows for the simple folding pattern to be expanded vertically, allowing all robotics components to be housed within the panels of the robot without impacting the functional relationships between folds of the pattern, or requiring other, more complex forms of thickness accommodation. The mathematics and engineering to create such a robot are presented to enable the use of these techniques in creating other origami-based robots. This paper communicates methods for generating gait policies for origami-based patterns, the limitations of such methods, and demonstrates such policies on a physical robot.