Robot walks on water: Now, that’s a milestone
Posted on July 19, 2007
Filed Under Robots
Warning: copy() [function.copy]: Filename cannot be empty in /home/momentin/public_html/robostyle/wp-content/plugins/mytube/mytube.php on line 220
Now of course, for you and me, a robot that can run or walk past water is something we would get momentarily excited about, laugh, talk a little about it, yawn and forget about it. But for many robot geeks out there, this of course is a very important milestone in what robots might be capable of achieving someday.
I know the robot you see up there looks too crabby to be good for anything, but if this mechanism, which uses the Basilisk lizard as the motivation, for robots to run past water, succeeds, it might foster the development of many crucial things that can make transport and life-saving work across the seas seem less difficult, and if it goes boom, well, its technology after all. There’s pretty much no one we can blame.
By slapping and stroking their feet in water, the Basilisk Lizard (apparently, that’s what its called), can create a motion that thrusts their body forward and backward in water, which if optimized, can enable 2 legged models provide 12-15 g/W of lift, while four-legged models can provide 50 g/W of lift. Pretty neat I’d say, and definitely a robotics milestone well achieved. (NiRa)
Comments
Leave a Reply
Flickr
