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Paper planes made by a robot fly better than ones made by humans

A robot that can design, build and test objects made from folded paper can make paper planes that fly further than ones made by a human having the same number of attempts

By Alex Wilkins

26 March 2024

Robot folding paper plane

PaperBot folding a paper plane

Ruoshi Liu/Columbia University

A robot can design, build and test objects made from folded paper, such as planes or grippers, better than a human if given the same number of attempts.

Robotic laboratories can test and design materials far faster than humans, but they often rely on computer simulations to cut down on real-world testing for the robot. However, this doesn’t work when testing objects that are difficult and computationally expensive to simulate, such as fluids or deformable materials like paper.

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