New 'Rubber Robot' Crawls Through Small Spaces With Inflatable Limbs 56
JoeRobe writes "Researchers at Harvard have developed a pneumatically-controlled rubber robot that combines undulation and quadrupedal 'crawling,' allowing it to maintain a low profile while moving. In a paper published in PNAS (abstract), they describe it as a 'soft robot, composed exclusively of soft materials (elastomeric polymers), which is inspired by animals (e.g., squid, starfish, worms) that do not have hard internal skeletons.' The robot is solely powered by relatively low pressure (10 psi), and controlled by 5 pneumatic actuators. The research was funded by DARPA." The paper is also available (not paywalled) from the researchers' project site (PDF), complete with more creepy images of the squidbot.
I, for one, (Score:5, Funny)
welcome our.. oh never mind.
Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
more than one (Score:2, Funny)
New rubber, inflatable robot... needs 2nd robot to follow it and provide air lines for power source.
Still--this has real applications....
Re:Wow! (Score:2, Funny)
Do they make one in a gerbil shape?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)