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Swimming Cockroach Robot Developed

Posted by simoniker on from the vermin-no-more dept.

Onnimikki writes "The Ambulatory Robotics Lab at McGill University has made a six-legged swimming cockroach robot as part of Project Aqua. The robot is a waterproof version of the RHex robot, whose inspiration is the biomimetic work by Bob Full of Gecko glue fame. Other cool stuff from the ARL page includes a waddling bipedal RHex, and the world's first galloping robot."

10 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Not first by quintesse · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wish I could prove with u URL of some sort but I'm 2000% positive that I've seen galloping robots in a documentary years and years ago made by some university or MIT. I remember that they were made using hydraulics and that they had quadrupeds and even a monoped running/hopping through the hallways (with the researchers running to keep up with cables and such ;-) I also remember that the movements were not preprogrammed but the system "learned" how best to cope with N legs. It developed all of the gaits found in a horse for example. Very good stuff.

    1. Re:Not first by pipingguy · · Score: 2, Informative


      This thing almost loooks like it could gallop (walking tree harvester from Finland - apparently it can sidestep like a crab, too).

      Website

    2. Re:Not first by Onnimikki · · Score: 5, Informative

      You may be 2000% positive, but the assertion that no galloping robots had ever been made (until now, by MIT or anyone else) is backed up by Schmiedeler and Waldron's IJRR paper entitled "The Mechanics of Quadrupedal Galloping and the Future of Legged Vehicles". In it they state "To the best of the authors' knowledge, however, no artificial legged system has ever been operated in a true gallop. Raibert's (1986) quadruped used its legs in pairs, employing trot, pace and bound gaits." The MIT work that you are referring to is that done by Marc Raibert.

  2. Re:Buoyancy by Coelacanth · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can make an object neutrally-buoyant (or close enough to it) by carefully adding foam or other light stuff (ping-pong balls!). The tricky bit is making it not only neutral in an overall sense, but to prevent the object from tending towards a particular attitude in the water.

    And unless you fill the tank with salt water or, perhaps, lime jello, the density of water is pretty much the same everywhere :-)

  3. build your own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://www.lynxmotion.com/

  4. WinXP and the newbie Roboticist trap by snatchitup · · Score: 4, Informative

    Many people start robotic projects fearing embedded development. So, they think, why can't I just control everything from my PC.

    The problem with this is, it actually adds complexity.

    Typically, it means adding a MAX232 with Charge ups, or the more expensive MAX233. This, just to convert the RS232 25Volts down to TTL 5volts. Then you need another component to translate the characters into logic. What a pain! Not to mention a tether.

    Better to just learn a little assembly. It's really easy for these applications. Just turning things on and off is setting/clearing a bit in an output register.

    Software, is really not that hard, in fact, possibly overrated in terms of the complexity of building one of these beasts. It's the electronics, and contruction. Getting things to actually move.

    1. Re:WinXP and the newbie Roboticist trap by apdt · · Score: 5, Informative

      True, especially when you can actually program some of the PIC's in C. e.g. the Microchip PIC 12/14/16/17 families

      --
      I lay awake last night wondering where the sun had gone, then it dawned on me.
  5. Re:I've been slashdotted! YEAH! I'm so proud! by dannycim · · Score: 5, Informative


    I'd have prepared for this by mirroring the images and videos and redirected to them. Ain't so hard if you know in advance.

    I didn't post the story, somebody else here at McGill did without telling me.

    Anyways, anybody want to host 'em?

  6. Movie mirror by Onnimikki · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've posted the smaller movie [14MB] on the .Mac servers: the cockroach robot movie.

  7. here it is: bittorrent file by nevroe · · Score: 4, Informative
    I work on the RHex project at CMU, so I had the movie sitting around on my computer. The ARL website is pretty dogged down, so James had to pull the website and the original 60 MB video, replacing it with a smaller 14 MB version.

    If you want the full version movie, go here for the torrent file.

    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~gch/Aqua.mpg.torrent