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This paper introduces ZipFold, a modular actuator based on compound folding and zipping of 3D-printed plastic strips to create deployable beams with tunable scale and stiffness. The actuator enables smooth transitions between compact and expanded states, allowing for diverse shape and stiffness transformations in modular assemblies. The authors characterize the actuator's mechanical performance and demonstrate its utility in a four-module adaptive walking robot.
Forget complex, bespoke mechanisms: ZipFold offers a simple, scalable path to adaptive robots that morph their shape and stiffness on demand.
There is a growing need for robots that can change their shape, size and mechanical properties to adapt to evolving tasks and environments. However, current shape-changing systems generally utilize bespoke, system-specific mechanisms that can be difficult to scale, reconfigure or translate from one application to another. This paper introduces a compact, easy-to-fabricate deployable actuator that achieves reversible scale and stiffness transformations through compound folding and zipping of flexible 3D-printed plastic strips into square-section deployable beams. The simple actuation method allows for smooth, continuous transitions between compact (flexible) and expanded (quasi-rigid) states, facilitating diverse shape and stiffness transformations when modules are combined into larger assemblies. The actuator's mechanical performance is characterized and an integrated system involving a four-module adaptive walking robot is demonstrated.
MIT CSAIL