These robots, developed by a team of researchers at Stanford University in the United States, are based on the origami pattern known as the Kresling pattern. It was Biruta Kresling, an architect and designer born in 1942 to a German mother and a Russian father and working in Paris, who pioneered twist buckling, which now bears her name. The fold is produced by wrapping a sheet of paper around two coaxial cylinders set slightly apart, then twisting them in opposite directions about their common axis to create a pattern of regular creases. A magnetic field sets the structure rotating, allowing it to move by rolling and tumbling. Its central opening allows it to draw in and transport medication, then, when it stops rotating, deposit it where it is needed in the body. The art of origami can take us a long way!

The Kresling pattern.