Real-Life Transformer: Robotic Bug Springs to Life

The latest advancement in robotics may not look like much — just a few small batteries attached to a flat sheet of paper — but there's much more to this new contraption than meets the eye.

If you look long enough, you'll see the sheet of paper start to move, transforming itself with a few crisp folds. First, legs emerge, and then batteries are lifted off the ground, onto the back of what now looks like a small robotic bug. Within minutes, the futuristic insect is moving, crawling around on four legs and turning as if it knows just where it's headed.

This real-world Transformer, developed by computer and electrical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, could change the field of robotics. Researchers say the self-assembling robot represents a new way to build bots, a process that will make it easier to churn out complex machines in less time.

Origami robots

The new robots were inspired in part by origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. While they look thin enough to be made from a single sheet of paper, the bots actually consist of five layers of materials, including paper, copper and a shape-memory polymer that folds when heated to more than 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). The middle, copper layer contains a network of electrical wires that deliver heat to the robot's joints, initiating a complex folding process.

This method lets the robot fold itself one step at a time, which is important because the researchers programmed the bot to build upon each previous movement, Felton said. First, it makes one fold, then another.

Once the robot is all folded up into its buglike shape, it seems to move as if by magic. In reality, though, it's propelled by two tiny motors, which are connected to the batteries carried on the bug's back, the researchers said. Also on the robot's back is a microprocessor, programmed with a unique algorithm developed by computer scientists at MIT. The microprocessor tells the robot what to do — what shape to take and how to move.