Entry Date:
June 12, 2004

Flatbots: Layered Construction and Integrated Actuators to Create Inexpensive Walking Robots

Principal Investigator Martin Culpepper


Robots are complex systems comprised of tens to hundreds of individual, custom made parts. These robots are expensive and fragile, keeping them from being viable exploration or educational vehicles for the masses. What if walking robots could be made from one part or an assembly of a few planar sheets of materials? The key to FlatBot’s simplicity is integrated actuators and mechanisms built into layers which are then assembled and formed/folded to make a complex robot.