Physical Reservoir Computing with Origami - A Feasibility Study

In the field of soft robotics, harnessing the nonlinear dynamics of soft and compliant bodies as a computational resource to enable embodied intelligence and control is known as morphological computation. Physical reservoir computing (PRC) is a true instance of morphological computation wherein; a physical nonlinear dynamic system is used as a fixed reservoir to perform complex computational tasks. These dynamic reservoirs can be used to approximate nonlinear dynamical systems and even perform machine learning tasks. By numerical simulation, this study illustrates that an origami meta-material can also be used as a dynamic reservoir for pattern generation, output modulation, and input sensing. These results could pave the way for intelligently designed origami-based robots that interact with the environment through a distributed network of sensors and actuators. This embodied intelligence will enable the next generations of soft robots to autonomously coordinate and modulate their activities, such as locomotion gait generation and limb manipulation while resisting external disturbances.