This robot paper plane designer (really a robot arm fashioned with silicone grippers) can run through this whole process without human feedback. A video of the robot at work.

Start with paper; add Shrinky Dinks, a microprocessor, heat, and voila! It's not quite that easy. But this engineering project might one day lead to a printable, flat spacecraft that folds itself.

Seattle surgeon Jim Porter, in order to show off the da Vinci's capabilities, folds a paper airplane using the system's little grippers. Check out the video inside, it's really quite cool.

Researchers at MIT have created a "shape-shifting" origami robot that is able to automatically fold itself into a boat or a plane.