These configurable bots could launch flat and then be assembled in space. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Breaking space news, ...

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors.

The combined mental prowess of Harvard University and MIT has yielded a special kind of self-assembling robot that folds up like origami and crawls away. The prototype, which is built almost entirely ...

North Carolina, USA — October 2025. Researchers at North Carolina State University have created paper-thin “magnetic muscles” that can power origami structures. The technology uses magnetic films to ...

What just happened? Engineers at North Carolina State University have created cube-shaped plastic robots that can morph into over a thousand different configurations using just three tiny motors. This ...

A crawler robot made with the miura-ori origami pattern. The dark sections are affixed with thin "magnetic muscles" made by co-extruding rubber polymer and ferromagnetic particles, which move the ...

A new 3-D printing technique can create paper-thin "magnetic muscles," which can be applied to origami structures to make them move. By infusing rubber-like elastomers with materials called ...