Scientists at MIT and Harvard have invented self-folding smart fiberglass sheets that can crease themselves into origami airplanes and boats.
It’s a far cry from previous programmable matter research we’ve seen, which works at the nanoscale to create scaffolds and gears.
The fiberglass sheets are about a half-millimeter thick and made of half-inch-wide triangular tiles. They can be made at a larger scale, enabling machines that can fold, Transformer-like, into any number of objects.
Though the goal is to make large objects, the folding involves some nano-scale circuits. MIT computer scientist Daniela Rus embedded shape-memory strips, made of a nickel-titanium alloy, that were about 100 microns thick — the width of a human hair. The sheets were also outfitted with stretchable copper-laminated plastic mesh, which served as wires. (via Video: “Smart Sheets” Can Self-Assemble Into Airplanes, Boats | Popular Science)