A folding robot weighing 4 grams that crawls and jumps

28. Researchers at EPFL have come up with a folding, reconfigurable robot that is capable of crawling and jumping. Modelled on the inchworm, it represents a new paradigm in robotics. The word robot generally conjures up images of a rigid structure and electronic motors. In Jamie Paik's Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory, however, the word takes on a whole new meaning. Researchers have thrown convention out the window by creating robots patterned on origami: flat, ultra-light and foldable. The most recent of these origami robots or "robogamis", Tribot, has been unveiled at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).