As multiple researchers continue their efforts to make micro-robotic flying insects, Harvard’s Robert Wood has made strides in self-assembling systems with the robobee above. Inspired by his child’s pop-up books, Wood’s device starts flat on a scaffold. More than 100 hinges enable the 3D structure to “pop up” into the robot seen here. This is only one of the Origami-like approaches that researchers at Harvard, MIT, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaig, and elsewhere are using to create small, complex objects at scale, from drug delivery systems to solar cells. Science News surveys the field. “Into the Fold“
