The robot-made shelter that adapts to human movement

The unusual shelter has been set up at the V&A Museum in London as part of a new "Engineering Season" that runs until November. It was created by a group from the University of Stuttgart in Germany: Achim Menges, an experimental architect and professor; Jans Knipper, a structural engineer and professor; Moritz Dorstelmann, a research associate and doctoral candidate at the university; and Thomas Auer, a climate engineer. It's called the Elytra Filament Pavilion, and it takes inspiration from the hardened "elytra" wings used by flying beetles. While they're shooting through the air, these insects raise their forewings into a flat, open position, revealing a pair of softer and more powerful sails underneath. "The shell of the flying beetle is a very light structure, because, well, the beetle has to fly," Knipper says.