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Domain: environmentalgraffiti.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to environmentalgraffiti.com.

Stories · 2

  1. Researchers Reference Flocking Birds to Improve Swarmbots

    · posted by ryuzaki0 · from the shine-your-shoes-while-composing-a-song dept. · 62 comments
    inghamb87 writes "Scientists have studied flocks of starlings and cracked the mystery behind the birds' ability to fly in large formations, and regroup quickly after attacks, without getting confused and ramming into each other. While the information is cool, some scientists seem to think that the best use of this knowledge is not to aid our appreciation of nature, but to make more effective robot swarms. We've talked about swarming robots many times before, but usually researchers look to insects for inspiration."

  2. Robots That Bounce on Water

    Hardware · Robot · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the something-about-tigger-goes-here dept. · 137 comments
    inghamb87 writes "The way water striders walk on water was discovered years ago. The insect uses its long legs to help evenly distribute its tiny body weight. The weight is distributed over a large area so that the fragile skin formed by surface tension supports the bug on the water. However, the ability of water striders to jump onto water without sinking has baffled scientists, until now." If nothing less, you need to see the picture: it's awesome.