The origami sensor makes power from movement, folds on its own, needs no battery, and can be used in cushions, wearables, health tools, and factories.
Origami, the Japanese paper folding art, is used in science to make things like space solar panels and folding robots. One example is the corrugated origami triboelectric nanogenerator (CO-TENG), a sensor that makes electricity from movement when materials touch and separate. A team from Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan have made a CO-TENG that works without batteries by adding copper and plastic sheets to paper and printing a folding design on it.
The device works by turning mechanical stress into electrical signals. This happens through friction between the layered conductive and dielectric materials. Thanks to the self-folding paper technology, the sensor folds itself, reducing the need for manual work and making the production process easier. This makes it useful for future smart devices.
After building the device, the team studied how the self-folding paper behaved. They looked at how the width of the printed lines and the thickness of the paper affected the folding angles and the force that helps the paper return to its shape. First, they tested a single fold. Then, they moved to a multi-fold corrugated structure, which improved the energy output. Connecting multiple folds in series greatly increased the power output and showed good durability, lasting over 1,000 compression cycles.
The researchers also tested the sensor in a smart cushion. When objects were dropped onto the CO-TENG, it created electrical signals based on how much force the object applied. These signals were analyzed with machine learning (LightGBM), which allowed the system to recognize different objects. The system correctly identified objects with 98.9% accuracy, showing promise for use in areas like logistics and smart packaging.
Besides logistics, the nanogenerator can also be used in medical devices and electronics. Its high flexibility makes it suitable for wearable devices that track body movement, posture, or external impacts in real-time, which can be useful in elderly care. Its small size makes it a good fit for soft, portable, and on-demand devices, especially for IoT-based personal health monitoring systems. In addition, the foldable design of CO-TENG helps lower storage and transportation costs, which is important for industrial use and large-scale production.
Reference: Haruki Higoshi et al, Self‐Folded Corrugated Origami Sensor Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerator for a Smart Cushioning Device, Advanced Materials Technologies (2025). DOI: 10.1002/admt.202500032
