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Rare Desert Walking Robot: Mojave or Bust

Posted by Hemos on from the move-'em-on-out dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Robust walking robots are still surprisingly rare. The Astrobiology Magazine is reporting today on the German-American Scorpion Project to conquer 25 miles of targeted navigation into the Mojave Desert and back autonomously. The eight-legged robot is triple-jointed and must travel by day (solar-batteries) for two-weeks alone without human intervention. Because it's a scorpion, the camera is in the tail."

3 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. What the heck did they build that out of? by KillerBob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Size: 450x200x300 (LxWxH cm)
    Weight: 3.5-5 kg (incl. battery)

    A 10lb robot that's 4.5m long, 2m wide, and 3m high?

    --
    If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
  2. DARPA by Ashish+Kulkarni · · Score: 4, Interesting

    hmm...just a curiosity, but I know that DARPA is sponsoring lots of biometric/robotic related research. Are the results of the research freely available? I mean, can we see what has been the results of such research? The current HCI is way too outdated, and I think it may be obsolete in a few years.....

  3. 8 leggs really needed? by automag_6 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It seems to me that even over very uneven terrain, that 6 legs should do the job nicely. I mean, 3 legs should be plenty enough for walking over level surfaces. Sure, it can be done with 2, but the benefits of the third are obvious. With the fourth, all of a sudden 3 can stabilise the creature/contraption while the 4th is in motion. With the 5th, you can have 2 moving at the same time, and with 6th, well, you can go hog wild with the movement over even difficult terrain.

    I just fail to see the benefit of 8 legs, especially considering all the work that they apear to have claimed to do minimizing enegery consumption, spoken about here
    http://ais.gmd.de/BAR/SCORPION/simulation.htm