Stanford
Zhao Lab

Origami-based Reconfigurable Systems

Origami, the ancient art of paper folding, allows the reshaping of planar materials or structures into intricate three-dimensional architectures. Origami-based reconfigurable systems enable various deformations and motions that can be applied to engineering fields including morphing structures, soft robotics, and biomedical devices.

Spinning-enabled Wireless Amphibious Origami Millirobot, Nature Communications (2022)

Amphibious origami millirobot utilizes spinning-enabled locomotion for navigation capability in various on-ground and in-water environments with controlled delivery of liquid medicine and targeted solid cargo transportation functions

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Soft Robotic Origami Crawler, Science Advances (2022)

A small-scale origami crawler is developed based on a four-unit Kresling origami assembly by magnetic actuation with the capabilities of crawling in confined space, fast steering, and drug storage and release

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Stretchable origami robotic arm with omnidirectional bending and twisting, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021)

Inspired by the soft-bodied cephalopod biosystem, we engineer origami robotic arms to achieve multimodal deformations that integrate stretching, folding, omnidirectional bending, and twisting

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Untethered control of functional origami microrobots with distributed actuation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020)

A magnetically responsive origami system is developed, possessing distributed, untethered control capabilities for integrating actuation, sensing, and computing

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