Scientists have developed, inspired by the Japanese origami art, folding folding robot can enter the market. Traditional robot can not reach the environment. To complete the task of traditional robots can not be used. However, these devices have a huge drawback: they must be equipped with batteries or wires. Now, researchers at Harvard University have found a solution to the problem. They designed a collapsible robot to harness the power of a wireless magnetic field.
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[source](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719140945.htm)</center>
Collapsible robot is a stylish, on-demand production robot. Users can fold it up, into other shapes can not enter the environment, and then let the robot to restore shape, perform the task. The problem is that the most complex origami robots now require batteries and wires, so they are clumsy and not biologically safe.
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[source](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719140945.htm)</center>
That's right, the most exciting aspect of collapsible robots is the tremendous potential they have shown at the Medical Awards. Future doctors can send micro-folding robots into the patient's body, and then perform treatment tasks such as delivering the medicine to a designated body part. The wires and the batteries obviously cause interference. So scientists at the Wisconsin Institute of Bioengineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Harvard decided to develop an externally powered wireless collapsible robot.
Scientists have previously developed foldable robots that do not require batteries or wires, but their design is too simple. In contrast, the new foldable robot is more complex in shape and function.
Led by the roboticist Mustafa Boyvat, researchers designed and tested several different systems, including a tetrahedral robot that can be folded up to a quarter size and a Made of paper, palm-sized ship-type robot.
To make these robots battery-free, researchers installed two components at their joints: a coil made from a shape memory alloy that restored the robot to its original shape when heated; and secondly, at a specific magnetic resonance frequency A small circuit that produces electricity.
By changing the frequency of the magnetic field, the robot can fold one of the joints as needed without interfering with each other. If you superimpose the magnetic field, multiple joints can be folded at the same time. The research team demonstrated a variety of degrees of freedom, both centimeter and millimeter can be achieved.
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[source](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719140945.htm)</center>
"Like origami, our design is very simple," says co-author Je-sung Koh. "The system just needs to have the basic passive electronics installed on the robot to generate the current, and the rest of the problems are left to the robot itself "
Researchers can move and unfold these devices without touching them, even without seeing them.
"We believe this study demonstrates the feasibility of wirelessly powered, wirelessly controlled origami robots," the study author states. "The technology can be used to develop collapsible medical devices that do not require power storage or control components to remotely operate within a patient's body operation."
In addition, the researchers are still envisioning a swallowable robot to replace the endoscope. The device can shuttle in the body, perform simple tasks, such as grasping tissue or shooting video. The most exciting is that the size of the device can be changed at random.
"The study of miniaturization can go further," Boivat said. "I do not think we have reached the lower limit of the size of the robot, and we are thrilled to be able to look further into our design and use it in the medical field."
Next, the researchers plan to experiment with robots of different sizes and configurations and test their performance over different frequency bands. But to see the more complex and sophisticated origami robot, I do not know how long to wait.
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References used:
* https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719140945.htm
* http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/07/incredible-self-folding-robots-work-without-batteries-or-wires/
* https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-07/wifb-nbn071817.php
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