OrigaMechs.

Robots are cool. When they're as thin as sheets and foldable, they get even cooler. For them, to be truly useful it takes time to load them with the necessary components to be interactive and smart after they're shaped. Otherwise... well, they're too thin to be shaped with components loaded beforehand.
And that's just fine, right?

No. At all.

Introducing "OrigaMechs," short for Origami MechanoBots.

We always want more, and the University of California, Los Angeles, has given these robots a new lease of life, making them fully independent from the beginning, as they don't rely on semiconductor components at all. They ARE the conductor components!
No doubt that the hard work behind the scenes is certainly challenging, but the reasoning is pretty straightforward, and I love it.

The fact that they can be easily transported in flat packaging suggests they could be developed for massive deployment in space. Why not, with fleets of spider shaped foldable sheet robots.
Space Marines, please. Step away.

Also, there's no need to rephrase what Ankur Mehta himself, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of UCLA's Laboratory for Embedded Machines and Ubiquitous Robots, said: "The robots could be designed for specialty functions and manufactured on demand very quickly." The most agile manufacturer enterprises will have their toys.