Our Perspective article “Tailoring materials into kirigami robots” is published in the September’s Issue of Device!
Congrats to Saravana & Aida!
The bigger picture: As a design strategy, the kirigami technique can help bridge the gap between traditional rigid structures and soft, adaptable machines. By controlling the shape of cuts and folds, one can apply kirigami designs to any sheet of material across multiple length scales. In robotics, kirigami can help simplify robot designs by creating lightweight and compact actuators, sensors, power and control, and the skin and body of robots. Using kirigami manipulators in factory assembly lines can help handle delicate materials or construct intricate parts. Crawling kirigami robots can explore extraterrestrial planetary surfaces by tight packing during launch and deployment into a functional form after landing. Miniaturized kirigami robots can travel through the gastrointestinal tract to deliver drugs and perform biopsies on the spot. Moreover, imagine kirigami robots as integral components of smart cities, aiding disaster response to find people by swiftly adapting to diverse terrains and scenarios.
Summary: Kirigami, the traditional paper-cutting craft, holds immense potential for revolutionizing robotics by providing multifunctional, lightweight, and adaptable solutions. Kirigami structures, characterized by their bending-dominated deformation, offer resilience to tensile forces and facilitate shape morphing under small actuation forces. Kirigami components such as actuators, sensors, batteries, controllers, and body structures can be tailored to specific robotic applications by optimizing cut patterns. Actuators based on kirigami principles exhibit complex motions programmable through various energy sources, while kirigami sensors bridge the gap between electrical conductivity and compliance. Kirigami-integrated batteries enable energy storage directly within robot structures, enhancing flexibility and compactness. Kirigami-controlled mechanisms mimic mechanical computations, enabling advanced functionalities such as shape morphing and memory functions. Applications of kirigami-enabled robots include grasping, locomotion, and wearables, showcasing their adaptability to diverse environments and tasks. Despite promising opportunities, challenges remain in the design of cut patterns for a given function and streamlining fabrication techniques.
Murali Babu S.P., Parvaresh A., Rafsanjani A. (2024) Tailoring materials into kirigami robots, Device 2(9), 100469.