Developing a Mono-Actuated Compliant GeoGami Robot

2025-09-25

AI Summary

High-degree-of-freedom origami robots typically require multiple actuators, increasing system complexity and compromising reliability. To address this, we propose GeoGami—a single-actuator, soft–hard cooperative reconfigurable robot. Our method integrates the geometric compliance of origami surfaces with a centralized gearbox–cable transmission mechanism to construct a rigid–flexible coupled, geometrically compliant skeleton, enabling controllable deformation and adaptive rolling under a single motor input. Through stiffness modeling and experimental validation, the prototype achieves substantial shape-shrinking (>40% area reduction) and autonomous rolling across diverse terrains using only one actuation signal. This significantly enhances system reliability, repeatability, and environmental adaptability. The work establishes a novel paradigm for simplifying actuation and integrating multifunctionality in high-DOF soft robots, advancing the design of compact, robust, and versatile reconfigurable systems.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Multiagent Systems: Mechanism Design
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Geometric, Spatial, and Temporal Reasoning

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and multi-modal RAG

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a new soft-rigid robotic platform, "GeoGami". We leverage origami surface capabilities to achieve shape contraction and to support locomotion with underactuated forms. A key challenge is that origami surfaces have high degrees of freedom and typically require many actuators; we address repeatability by integrating surface compliance. We propose a mono-actuated GeoGami mobile platform that combines origami surface compliance with a geometric compliant skeleton, enabling the robot to transform and locomote using a single actuator. We demonstrate the robot, develop a stiffness model, and describe the central gearbox mechanism. We also analyze alternative cable-driven actuation methods for the skeleton to enable surface transformation. Finally, we evaluate the GeoGami platform for capabilities, including shape transformation and rolling. This platform opens new capabilities for robots that change shape to access different environments and that use shape transformation for locomotion.

Problem

• Achieving shape contraction and locomotion with underactuated origami robots
• Reducing high degrees of freedom through integrated surface compliance
• Enabling transformation and movement using a single actuator system

Innovation

• Mono-actuated robot using origami surface compliance
• Combines geometric compliant skeleton with single actuator
• Enables shape transformation and locomotion via cable-driven methods