Origami as a computer: physical reservoir computing powers robotic crawling

cephaloform · x · 2026-08-20

An arXiv robotics paper shows origami structures can serve as physical reservoirs: simulations with a dynamic truss-frame model demonstrate enough computing power to emulate high-order nonlinear systems and generate stable limit cycles, with optimal feedback crease distribution and folding-design tuning improving performance most. A case study achieves earthworm-like peristaltic crawling without traditional controllers. The poster jokes you should get into origami now to understand your agents' metamaterial stuff in a year.

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