Shape-Shifting Robot!

Morphing cars and planes closer as Pentagon develops shape-shifting robot

Morphing cars and planes closer as Pentagon develops shape-shifting robot - Telegraph

The robot has four distinct stages in its shape-shifting. First, an algorithm creates a model of the 3-D shape it is to become, and it reverse-engineers the folding paths required to get there. A second algorithm produces a plan telling each individual tile how and when to fold to match those paths.

Dr Wood continues, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: “The third algorithm receives each of the individual plans [and] assembles them onto one sheet…. Finally, the fourth algorithm chooses the optimum arrangement [to] minimize either the number of actuators or number of actuator groups.”