Electromagnetic Animated Origami

For some time, Carl Bugeja has been experimenting with electromagnetic actuators built into printed circuit boards. It’s a rather ingenious concept, and currently he sells his small Flexar actuator stickers on his website. A driver board is also available there, which can be used with the stickers to manipulate a permanent magnet, and even audibly buzz as needed.

It’s a cool enough setup to inspire any number of projects, and the design files are available on GitHub if you would like to integrate this concept into your own PCB.

If you need even more inspiration, Bugeja integrates these actuators into a variety of origami figures in the video below. While not every piece of folded art is appropriate – one needs to be aware of mechanical and temperature considerations when using an actuator this way – he has good success with several items. These include a dog that flaps its ears; a scorpion; and, what he considers his finest work of origami, a very pretty parrot.

For the parrot, he integrated his powerful 12-layer coil actuators on the wings, along with magnets on the body. He also added a flexible actuator in its neck area for additional movement, and coded in a bit of music to make it a more parrot-like.

It’s quite the impressive build, showing off how a multiple skills can be combined to make something really neat. Bugeja did not cover the actual folding process (which would make the video quite long). If you’re interested in those specifics, the origami tutorials are linked in his video description.