Suyi Li
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Engineering
Most robots and smart machines rely on electronics for sensing, memory and decisions. These projects ask how much of that intelligence can be built into the physical body of a structure, and how ideas from nature can make robots last longer in changing environments.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
Computer Science
- Topics
origami engineering
mechano-intelligence
physical intelligence
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Explore how complex mechano-intelligence (sensing, memory and decision-making carried out by a structure itself) can become when origami acts as a mechanical neural network through physical reservoir computing.
- Develop performance metrics for mechanical intelligence and relate origami design and mechanical properties to intelligence performance, producing a systematic design method for intelligent structures.
- Create origami-based robotic "trunk" components that grow through energy-efficient folding and self-locking, and continuum-robot "leaf" and "needle" parts for fast sensing and manipulation.
- Explore plant-like energy harvesting and integrate components into plant-inspired robot prototypes tested in long-duration outdoor monitoring of campus pedestrian traffic and natural habitats.
More about the research
Origami folding is a common thread. In one project it serves as a mechanical computer; in the other it is the basis of robot parts that grow.
Why it matters
Machines that sense and decide through their own structure could use less power and keep working in harsh settings or under cyberattack, which could help many industries. Plant-inspired growing robots could monitor hard-to-reach environments for months, tracking pollution, humidity and animal migration while also responding to events such as pollution outbreaks, forest fires or rare animal sightings, aiding environmental protection.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Cagdas Onal
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA·Engineering
Develop a modular, origami-inspired continuum robot arm (CoBRA) with customizable design algorithms, so the arm can be tailored to specific assistive tasks in homes and healthcare settings.
Md Raf E Ul Shougat
Kennesaw State University, GA·Engineering
Develop adaptive mechanisms that tune nonlinear oscillators to stay near critical transitions between motion patterns. Use modeling, stability analysis and numerical continuation to find how this affects sensitivity, memory and robustness.
Jianguo Zhao
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Engineering
Design modular morphing rods that pair a heat-driven artificial muscle with a variable-stiffness shape memory polymer, plus connectors that let the rods be assembled into reconfigurable 2D and 3D structures.
The school
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: 35 labs on PI Pages, $657M a year on research, 496 research doctorates a year.
More about Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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