The World's First Origami Folding Robot

Roland Piquepaille writes "Devin Balkcom, a Carnegie Mellon graduate student in robotics, has built the world's first origami-folding robot as the subject of his thesis. Origami, the geometry of paper folding, looks simple when you're a kid. But it's actually quite challenging to design a robot to do it. Movements are quite complex, and paper, because it is flexible, is difficult to be manipulated by a robot. This news release says that the project uses kinematics, the study of mechanisms, to determine how folding is done and how paper can be treated as a flexible and rigid material. You'll find more details and references in this overview, including some frames extracted from videos showing the robot at work." Balkcom's website has movies, information and a couple of academic papers.

It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[strictnein]

So, how much will it cost for the robot to fold me 1000 paper cranes [hiroshima-is.ac.jp]?
Those videos are impressive. Unfortunately I'm sure that they'll be inaccessible shortly. The robot actually moves fairly quickly. Making both objects in less than a minute.

Score one for the round eyes!

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[strictnein]

Making both objects in less than a minute.

A minute a piece, not combined.

Hat: ~55 seconds
Airplane: ~35 seconds

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it appears that this robot can only make origami that is 2-D in nature. So, the 3-D paper cranes are a bit out of its range. But still, it's cool, nonetheless.

those servers look sketchy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just in case they go down (what with the quicktime movie and all) I mirrored the news release here [demonmoo.com] , the more detailed one here [demonmoo.com] and Blackom's site here [demonmoo.com]

Re:those servers look sketchy...

[NotoriousQ]

(Score:1, Informative)
(Score:2, Insightful)

???????

More like (Score:5, Funny)

Check the link:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~devin/

That is the CMU's School of Computer Science primary web servers. They have more bandwidth than the whole of slashdot, especially with school on vacation. And the servers are likely to be a server farm. It is not going down easily.

Re:those servers look sketchy...

[Jeremi]

They have more bandwidth than the whole of slashdot, especially with school on vacation. And the servers are likely to be a server farm. It is not going down easily.

True, but if we all try really hard, maybe we can do it. C'mon everybody! Click! Reload! Click! Reload! Faster!

Re:those servers look sketchy...

[0x0d0a]

There was a massive DDoS against CMU at one point that did slow down the univ. connection a bit.

The thing is that not only are the pipes quite fast, CERT is based at CMU -- and those are the folks doing some of the main research on identifying and avoiding DDoSes.

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[ttldkns]

did you notice the clever editing of the vidoes?

The part where after folding the first wing the paper is magically moved over to the other side in a split second?

how precise do you reckon the initial starting position of the paper will be though?

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[strictnein]

I did notice that and I kind of wondered why the robot wasn't able to make that move since it is shown making a similar move in the hat video.

Watch the hat video. There are no interuptions or magic moving.

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[MrRuslan]

As a CNC (Computer numerical control) programmer i can tell you that this machine is able to move that paper on it's own.If you look at the hat video you see it pick up the paper with a little vacum move it to any corinance you set it too and the rlese the vacum.they probly edited that part out to make the vedio shorter so there is no cover up or bullshit of any kind,to mee it's cool but it's not complicated at all.Here are some simple instructions on how to build a simple little cnc router
http://www.full

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[LittleBigLui]

Here are some simple instructions on how to build a simple little cnc router

I'll stay with cisco, thankyouverymuch.

(j/k, of course i know what a cnc router is.)

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[maxgraphic]

Read the fantastic article:

The movies are in real time, but the repositioning of the paper has been edited out of the paper airplane folding. The folding is open loop (the position of the paper is not sensed), so the accuracy is much less than what a human could achieve.

Re:It'll be easy to please the gods now!

[awing0]

More importantly, can it mass produce tin foil hats?

HAT

[stephenisu]

The hat video is at this link, not the bad one on the site. http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~devin/hat.mov [cmu.edu]

Re:It's cool...

[AndroidCat]

Keg? Hell, they've got self-chilling cans [realbeer.com] now.

on the plus side...

[wo1verin3]

they can't patent this since prior art exists. The Bender unit [411games.com] far exceeds capabilities of the folding unit.

Bite my ...

[duffel]

... glossy plastic ass!

laundry applications!

[ejaw5]

With a bit (okay...a lot) of tweaking..we can all have a robot that folds laundry from the dryer!

Re:laundry applications!

[nacturation]

As long as it doesn't try and do the ironing... I don't want razor-sharp edges on my shirts!

Re:laundry applications!

[Cyno01]

Actually it would probably be simpler, oragami is rather complex, i'd think 3 folds of a shirt would be a relativly simple task after this.

Re:laundry applications!

[TastesLikeChicken]

However, picking staticy laundry out of the dryer would be hard. Turning it right side out would be problematic too.

The practical and exciting extrapolation of this machine is automated sewing. Imagine going into a shop, having your body scanned and having any clothing you wanted mailed to you, and having it all fit perfectly (I could order my pair of pants, two shirts, underwear and socks each year off the internet ahhh). (and we won't have to enslave women in third world countries to do it).

Re:laundry applications!

[trb]

prior art [dematex.com] laundrygami

No, not yet

[DrInequality]

We still can't handle flexible materials well. Particularly materials like cloth which have highly complex properties.

Re:laundry origami

[daveinthesky]

Well.. actually maybe not *that* much tweaking.. check out this video. I swear.. the japanese must be 20 yrs ahead of the rest of the world.

t-shirt origami [guusbosman.nl]

damnnn......

Old Technology

[Anonymous Coward]

Text editors like vi have done folding a while ago. This must be one of those MS Robots that tout themselves as having this new innovation...and make it appear like nobody has EVER thought of it before.

Seriously, though, the precision and delicate nature needed to fold paper makes this a great technical achievement.

My printer manages

[earthforce_1]

To bend fold and multilate paper with surprising regularity.

Re:My printer manages

[strictnein]

as do most printers

But a really neat printer would fold and mutilate on command while following directions!

Re:My printer manages

[stephenisu]

our office theory is that within the printer exists a SINGULARITY.

Re:My printer manages

[Thing 1]

Don't forget spindle! [hoboes.com]

Darn

[iminplaya]

I thought the robot folded itself, like the Jetsons car.

Re:Darn

[Carnildo]

I thought the robot folded itself, like the Jetsons car.

I was expecting it to be a robot made from origami, not one that makes origami.

Re:Darn

[CityZen]

Yes, I too thought that we were one step closer to real-life Transformers!

But is there a robot...

[bairy]

...that can filter out those bloody AOL cds and put your coffee mug on them for you?

Re:But is there a robot...

[stephenisu]

I would love to put an AOL CD in this machine.

Hat, shmat...

[anandamide]

When it can fold this [sytes.net] , I'll be impressed!

Re:Hat, shmat...

[AndroidCat]

But can it fold Kokigami? [kokigami.com] ;)

Re:Hat, shmat...

[necro2607]

Frankly, I'd find this [origami.as], this [origami.as] or this [origami-artist.com] a much more impressive feat... ;)

Btw those are all folded from a single uncut piece of paper, although the last one is 'sealed with starch or matt lacquer' according to the artist(Paul Jackson)'s website...

Oooooooh.

[DrEldarion]

Now all we need are a pusher and shover bot and we'll be set!

Re:Oooooooh.

[mekkab]

I am the valley fold robot. I make paper cranes. We are here to protect you.

I am the mountain fold robot. I make Mt. Fuji.
We are here to protect you.

Valley fold will protect you from the terrible secret of space. Do you have stairs in your House?

Yes, but....

[platypibri]

Can it fold money to find Hidden Images [glennbeck.com] of 9-11?

Re:Yes, but....

[OverlordQ]

I got shits that look more like the WTC then those dollar bill tricks.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords

[Maniakes]

First they take over our water supply, then they develop the ability to fold thousands of paper cranes. And what better method than paper cranes to release billions of doses of LSD into our nation's reservoirs? Doesn't anyone watch movies anymore?

But...

[El-Kelvinator]

Does it make origami boulders?
http://www.origamiboulder.com/

How long to fold a copy of itself?

[beatleadam]

...But it's actually quite challenging to design a robot to do it...

I know there is a joke in here somewhere involving a word problem...

If it could lick stamps ...

[Homerz]

... you could make a fortune using it as a slave "homeworker", sending out pyramid-scheme letters.

1. Print -> Fold -> Lick -> Stamp
2. Goto 1.

A small step for robotics, a giant leap for Snail-mail spamming :)

Re:If it could lick stamps ...

[protohiro1]

I know its a joke post, but...These machines already exist. [pb.com] It is --relatively-- simple to make a machine that follows a script, the performs the exact same actions over and over again, like folding paper and sticking them in envelopes. Or welding cars. The magic here is the automatic planner, the software figures out what folds to make and in what order. That's fancy stuff right there.

Hm

[OneIsNotPrime]

Much more impressive than "The World's First Poker Folding Robot" they had at Comdex last year.

Sounds familiar

[moviepig.com]

Seem to recall either a Stephen King character or Wile E. Coyote who stood too close to a similar robot...

Nice CNC Robot

[MrRuslan]

It's very cool too see something like that.I work with a "Robot" like that evryday.It apears that evry movement of the machine has to be programmed in on each axis.In a way this is more advanced than the router I work on with only has 3 axis's.Do a goole search on CNC machines and you will see some interesting stuff that work like this robot.

Link to a site with industrial CNC machines

[MrRuslan]

http://www.biesseusa.com/
This company makes some nice CNC machinery for woodworking that work just like this.Anything you can draw in 3d with cad you can make on one of these.
I work on a machine almost identical to this one
http://www.biesseusa.com/biesseusa/product/biesse/ rover24.htm
and some of the details on these doors are made with a CNC machine like this
http://www.narvakitchens.com/Doors/index.html

Anyone else read it wrong?

[gareth6889]

When I read the title I though "how could you make a robot out of origami?" :)

Mad magazine

[spineboy]

Excellent!.. I can use it to see the hidden joke on the back page of Mad magazine!

things you'll never hear

[ellem]

In An Origami Factory

"Dad why did you take me to a gay Origami factory?"

"I don't know."

Kinematics

[craXORjack]

This news release says that the project uses kinematics, the study of mechanisms, to determine how folding is done and how paper can be treated as a flexible and rigid material.

Kinematics is the Study of Motion not Mechanisms. I seem to remember from Engineering school doing problems that dealt with things like the Coriolis Effect and relative motion. I found it difficult personally because up to that time we had only faced triple integrals using Cartesian coordinates and suddenly we were expected to do all sorts of stuff with radial and sperical coordinate systems.

Re:Kinematics

[StateOfTheUnion]

I agree, according to dictionary.com [reference.com], kinematics is:

The branch of mechanics that studies the motion of a body or a system of bodies without consideration given to its mass or the forces acting on it.

Mechanisms are defined as (dictionary.com [reference.com] again):

An instrument or a process, physical or mental, by which something is done or comes into being: "The mechanism of oral learning is largely that of continuous repetition" (T.G.E. Powell).

To be quite honest with you the press release doesn't seem to make

Not true Origami

[Neil Blender]

In the strictest rules of Origami, all folds must be done by hand. You cannot use any instrument to help you make a fold. So, there can only be psuedo-origami folding robots.

Re:Not true Origami

[Wehesheit]

What if the robot considers it's parts hands. If thats all the robot has and it doesn't use some external implement does that count as help?

Aren't our hands just a different type of instrument? Or must it be organic.

Re:Not true Origami

[Chess_the_cat]

I've got news for you: a robot can't "consider". It is just a machine built by a man. Sorry.

Re:Not true Origami

[mobby_6kl]

>In the strictest rules of Origami, all folds must be done by hand.

Uhh why, the robot uses its "hand", so it could be origami. Or at least robogami or something...

Re:Not true Origami

[Flexagon]

I don't know about that. It seems to me that you could have a Turing test for origami: slip a piece of paper through a chute in a door, ask for a specific fold (crane; carp [langorigami.com], note the caption: One uncut square!), wait for the result to slide back to you, then judge the results.

This is a very interesting article. There is already a lot of work on mathematical and computational origami, some elsewhere on the site linked above. The robot is a nice extension. It will be even more interesting as more restric

An art...

[Any Web Loco]

not accomplished by human hand alone is not art?

Mislead by the title...

[antdude]

I thought this was about a robot that could be transformed/folded like an orgami. Hmmph.

My how origami has evolved...

[DroopyStonx]

When I was a kid, we made things like cranes and ninja stars.

Now they've come up with a way to fold paper into robot that folds clothes? Amazing!

milk cartons...

[uncadonna]

so all those cartons and intricately folded packing materials I've been seeing all my life have been hand-folded?

What about pop-up books?

This is a nice student project, but I don't see that there's anything unprecedented here.

Re:milk cartons...

[__aagctu1952]

Hey, I never thought of that! Next time someone tells me to do some Origami I'll fold the Ancient Japanese Tetra Brik... that'll show 'em...

Freudian?

[StateOfTheUnion]

Quoted from the article: "Human beings are mechanisms," Balkcom said. "We're very complicated mechanisms and we don't even understand ourselves."

A gross oversimplication of humanity . . . were simply a mechanism that doesnt understand ourself? . . . isnt this a better description of a robot than a person? . . . sounds almost Freudian . . . perhaps this fellow feels more cofortable in the company of robots than people.

Re:Freudian?

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

Sheesh... Talk about read between the lines when there is nothing there.

Re:Freudian?

[gad_zuki!]

>were simply a mechanism that doesnt understand ourself?

Sorry if reality gets your down.

>isnt this a better description of a robot than a person?

An autonomous working AI would be the same as a human once you drop all the meta-physical garbage. Its materialism all the way.

Also, all analogies are flawed to a certain degree as they are always comparing apples and oranges, some are simply better comparisions than others.

Re:Freudian?

[necro2607]

You know, you *are* on slashdot... ;)

Don't stop!

[j_hirny]

Make a self-folding origami paper! Why should anyone need a robot to make an origami, when he can just buy a sheet of paper which will change to a swan or anything else?

Re:Don't stop!

[awing0]

Just add water!!

Nexus-6

[Anonymous Coward]

That robot better be able to fold unicorns.

It's too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?

Robots fold you!

[yellowstone]

In Soviet Russia.

Sorry, I hadda do it.

YES!!!

[cryptochrome]

In your face, Japan! Sure, you may go on and on about origami and robots, but some gaijin in a city you never even heard of beat you to the punch of putting them together in the real world!

Best watch out. I kinda feel like writing an interactive virtual reality edutainment tea ceremony that would put the most refined of geishas to shame.

Re:YES!!!-not geishas

[panurge]

Alas, no geishas in tea ceremony. Tea ceremony is Zen. Geishas provide high class entertainment at discreet parties.

So, entertainment not edutainment.

In other news...

[sreeram]

The author was seen beating the sh*t out of the robot. It had folded his academic papers meant for publication.

FAH

[Sporkinum]

How many Folding@Home work units does it do per day?

In other news...

[Ruliz Galaxor]

"U.S. discovers the logic behind metric paper sizes"

I wonder if the robot prefers Letters or A4 format? :)

sig(h)

Only one more year until

[marinebane]

Knot tieing robots!
think of the possibilities
i never have to tie nots in balloons again

Instant folding

[Tablizer]

I accidently ran over one while driving past the lab a few years ago. I think that should be counted the first. The rules don't say anything about UNfolding, do they?

Yes!

[Comatose51]

Yes, at last we have a way to fold a paper in half more than 7 times!

Worst. Paper. Airplane. Ever.

[The-Bus]

OK. Now I know this from not taking notes in grade school and tearing off the sheets from all my composition books to make severely intricate designs of paper airplanes. What I do know is that this so-called "ro-bot" did not properly make an airplane! If you see the airplane video [cmu.edu] it shows that it folds the A3 (or is it legal? letter4? DIN 2A? Imperial VII?) sheet of paper only three times. This gives you a paper airplane where the "nose" is folded at a 45 degree angle, NOT the preferred (and traditional) 2

Origabot!

[IntergalacticWalrus]

God, I read that headline too fast, and thought they had made a robot out of origami. How cool! I told myself, then I noticed it's not that cool. An origami folding robot? Bah.

Oh, nuts

[An El Haqq]

I can't decide what's worse. First, you have all those poor kids in 3rd world countries that'll be out of work. Second, you have the 100+ thousand dollars that supported the development of a machine that folds party hats for squirrels.

I suppose the military could make a really big robot that folds the enemy on the front lines.

Hmm. That all sounds a bit too bitter.

the real problem....

[klaricmn]

Now that they've tackled that issue they can get to work on the real folding problem [ram.org]

OH! The headline has a hyphen...

[RenaissanceGeek]

The world's first origami-folding robot

Cool! Autobot or Decepticon?

Origami, the geometry of paper folding, looks simple when you're a kid. But it's actually quite challenging to design a robot to do it.

Phooey.

Seriously, though: wouldn't an origami Megatron or StarScream just ROCK?

</CHILD OF THE 80'S>

not world's first

[girltron]

There was a *more impressive* origami robot built by a technician who works for Toyota in Nagoya, Japan a few years ago. It was for some kind of showcase they were having.. he built it in his spare time. Most impressive thing about it was that it created a paper crane, then unfolded it back to its orginal form - a flat sheet of paper (and continued this loop). They found that the only way they it could do this was by using washi, which is traditional hand made Japanese paper.

Is it just me

[JayFlatland]

or does this seem like an auto generated headline? Seems like "NASA creates beowulf cluster of TiVos" and "New anime series converted to linux".

Hmph... I am dubious.

[waferhead]

I just looked at the pictures on the page...

That robot looks AMAZINGLY like a pair of hands to me.

Guess I should watch the videos ;-)

(Go to the wesite and LOOK, expecting a pic of the robot.)

To those who are confused, this was a probably lame attempt at a joke.

SMF - Symmetric Multifolding

[generationxyu]

Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things...

Super, super cool.

[torpor]

Now, put a few rolls of al-foil, this machine, and a rocket together, then ship the whole thing up into geo-sync orbit to start folding durable space structures ... up there ...

Re:Some Videos of the robot in action

[Gestalt73]

MODS: Third Link to "Duck" is to a scat/porn/100 popups page. Don't click it. Nasty Stuff