Science Daily  September 13, 2023 Researchers at the University of Washington designed origami battery-free microfliers using bistable leaf-out structures and found that a simple change in the shape of the origami structures caused two dramatically different falling behaviors. When unfolded and flat, the microfliers exhibited a tumbling behavior that increased lateral displacement in the wind. When folded inward, their orientation was stabilized, resulting in a downward descent that was less influenced by wind. To electronically transition between these two shapes, they designed a low-power electromagnetic actuator that produced peak forces of up to 200 millinewtons within 25 milliseconds while powered […]