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Origami next frontier in robotics

 

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PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Robots can scamper across the surface of Mars, defuse bombs and vacuum floors. Now they also can fold small pieces of paper.

Officials at Carnegie Mellon University are excited about a graduate student who has developed a robot capable of doing origami -- the traditional Japanese art of folding paper to make figures or sculptures.

"Origami is way out there -- it's like a space shot," said Matthew Mason, a professor of computer science and robotics.

Doctoral candidate Devin Balkcom has created a robot that can make paper airplanes and hats.

Origami has important research applications because although robots have been taught to manipulate rigid objects such as golf clubs, they struggle when the objects are flexible, like paper or the human tissues that surgical robots must navigate.

Balkcom's robot uses a suction cup to pick and move paper, which is manipulated over a gutter on a metal surface.

The paper is then pushed down into the gutter using a straight-edge ruler attached to the robotic arm, and the gutter closes on the paper to crease it.

Balkcom is scheduled to earn his Ph.D with the project in August.



Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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