Foldaway Haptics flap into focus on Mercedes concept car

This week’s video comes from Switzerland via Las Vegas where EPFL spin-off Foldaway Haptics provided origami-inspired robots to Mercedes-Benz for their VISION AVTR concept car.

Foldaway Haptics
VISION AVTR concept car (Image: Mercedes-Benz)

Revealed this week at CES 2020, the VISION AVTR is meant to ‘showcase the interaction between humans, technology and nature’ and contains bodywork parts that move as the driver goes about the task of driving.

Morphing microrobots change shape according to environment

Origami device captures deep-sea creatures with delicacy

The 33 so-called ‘bionic flaps’ on the VISION AVTR are actuated by Foldaway Haptics’ robots, which are 2mm thick when folded flat but morph into a three-dimensional moving plate in a fraction of a second.

Foldaway Haptics’ Stefano Mintchev and Marco Salerno take up the story in the video below.