Artistic Non-Inertial Tracer (ANT): an Educational Kit for a 3-Link Origami Slithering Robot
Daniel Feshbach, Alex Chi, Eric Huang, Diedra Krieger, Cynthia Sung
The abundance of connections between art and engineering are opportunities to engage artistically inclined students who may not think of themselves as interested in robotics, and to inspire engineering-inclined students to express themselves artistically. This work presents a tool kit and lesson plan for a hands-on introductory robotics activity centering how art and engineering influence each other. The Artistic Non-Inertial Tracer (ANT) is a three-link robot made of origami, which contacts the ground through markers that trace patterns as it slithers around. The design is capable of forward, turning, backward, and diagonal motion. Using origami for the body highlights the influence of art on engineering, and the gait traces are a visually interesting output of the engineering. The kit uses inexpensive components totaling about $26/robot USD (servos, origami, and an Arduino Nano) common in hobbyist communities so that learning how to use these components can empower further exploration of actuated art. Our associated lesson plan engages participants in the assembly and control of ANT and contextualizes it within a broader overview of robot system components and the use of origami in engineering. We successfully ran the lesson as a 3-hour outreach workshop at a local arts organization.
@conference{feshbach2025artistic,
title = {Artistic Non-Inertial Tracer (ANT): an Educational Kit for a 3-Link Origami Slithering Robot},
author = {Daniel Feshbach and Alex Chi and Eric Huang and Diedra Krieger and Cynthia Sung},
url = {https://sung.seas.upenn.edu/research/ant/},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-06-22},
urldate = {2025-06-22},
booktitle = {2025 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition},
organization = {American Society for Engineering Education},
abstract = {The abundance of connections between art and engineering are opportunities to engage artistically inclined students who may not think of themselves as interested in robotics, and to inspire engineering-inclined students to express themselves artistically. This work presents a tool kit and lesson plan for a hands-on introductory robotics activity centering how art and engineering influence each other. The Artistic Non-Inertial Tracer (ANT) is a three-link robot made of
origami, which contacts the ground through markers that trace patterns as it slithers around. The design is capable of forward, turning, backward, and diagonal motion. Using origami for the body highlights the influence of art on engineering, and the gait traces are a visually interesting output of the engineering. The kit uses inexpensive components totaling about $26/robot USD (servos, origami, and an Arduino Nano) common in hobbyist communities so that learning how to use these components can empower further exploration of actuated art. Our associated lesson plan engages participants in the assembly and control of ANT and contextualizes it within a broader overview of robot system components and the use of origami in engineering. We successfully ran the lesson as a 3-hour outreach workshop at a local arts organization.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {forthcoming},
tppubtype = {conference}
}
The abundance of connections between art and engineering are opportunities to engage artistically inclined students who may not think of themselves as interested in robotics, and to inspire engineering-inclined students to express themselves artistically. This work presents a tool kit and lesson plan for a hands-on introductory robotics activity centering how art and engineering influence each other. The Artistic Non-Inertial Tracer (ANT) is a three-link robot made of
origami, which contacts the ground through markers that trace patterns as it slithers around. The design is capable of forward, turning, backward, and diagonal motion. Using origami for the body highlights the influence of art on engineering, and the gait traces are a visually interesting output of the engineering. The kit uses inexpensive components totaling about $26/robot USD (servos, origami, and an Arduino Nano) common in hobbyist communities so that learning how to use these components can empower further exploration of actuated art. Our associated lesson plan engages participants in the assembly and control of ANT and contextualizes it within a broader overview of robot system components and the use of origami in engineering. We successfully ran the lesson as a 3-hour outreach workshop at a local arts organization.
Presentation (background on origami robotics, assembly directions, and gait cycles): aseeAttachedSlides.pptx
Gait Videos
Gaits are written as tuples (amplitude, joint 1 center angle, joint 2 center angle, cycle duration, number of cycles) with angles in degrees and cycle duration (period) in seconds.
