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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."

6 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm... by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great until some Jawas jump out and capture it and it gets sold to a moisture farmer...

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    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  2. Nice movies of this thing in action by toggleflipflop · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hello All,

    Check out this URL to see how the scorpion behaves in real-world situations:

    Pretty neat.

    greetings,
    Tom

  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

  4. Correction: It's German-American-Canadian by Onnimikki · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Scorpion project is also being worked on by McGill University's Ambulatory Robotics lab (simulation videos of the six- and eight-legged versions are available there). I should know, since I've been working on improved leg designs to double Scorpion's forward velocity: see my webpage.

    So, the project is also Canadian.

  5. Hmmmm by jawtheshark · · Score: 5, Funny

    This thing looks like a Pentium II processor on legs!
    Stop my CPU, it is running away because I did too much PovRay! ;-)

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    Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
  6. Dear mom, by BiOFH · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm moving to the desert to be with the one I love.
    He has a good government job and we'll be traveling a lot.

    Please understand.
    Love,
    Aibo

    --
    - I am made of meat.