DailyDirt: Buggy Robots

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Bugs might be creepy and annoying, but they sure can do cool things, like hanging off walls and ceilings, jumping incredible distances, and flying at highway speeds. It's no wonder people have been trying to build robots inspired by bug behavior. Here are just a few examples.

• UC Berkeley researchers have built a cockroach-inspired, six-legged robot called DASH. With Velcro attached to its back legs, the robot can reproduce the "clever stealth behavior" observed in cockroaches. The hook-like claws on the cockroach's back legs allow it to grab the edge of the ledge, swing 180 degrees, and land on its feet underneath, upside down. [url]
• The Air Force is attempting to improve the way its micro-drones fly with help from the guy who built the Green Destiny supercomputer. Current micro-drones can be as small as five inches, but in the near future, they could be almost as small as real insects.[url]
• Harvard engineers have developed a way to rapidly mass-produce insect-inspired microrobots, such as the Harvard Monolithic Bee. The technique, which involves a layered assembly and lots of folding, is inspired by children's pop-up books and origami. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: ai, biomimcry, bots, bugs, insects, micro-drones, microrobots, robots