An end-to-end system for designing mechanical structures for print-and-fold robots

Abstract

This work presents a script-based development environment aimed at allowing users to easily design and create mechanical bodies for folded plastic robots. The origami-inspired fabrication process is inexpensive and widely accessible, and the tools developed in this work allow for open source design sharing and modular reuse. Designs are generated by recursively combining mechanical components - from primitive building blocks, through mechanisms and assemblies, to full robots - in a flexible yet well-defined manner. This process was used to design robotic elements of increasing complexity up to a multi-degree-of-freedom compliant manipulator arm, demonstrating the power of this system. The developed system is extensible, opening avenues for further research ultimately leading to the development of a complete robot compiler.