Slashdot Mirror
Cockroach-Like Robot to Help Explain Animal Movement
neutron_p writes "A cockroach-like robot named RHex is the starting point for a major project to understand animals' most distinguishing trait: how they move without falling over.
Researchers from several universities will focus on RHex, a short, six-legged robot that scampers like a cockroach, as a working model of the principles they're seeking to uncover. By tweaking the robot and using it as a physical model, they hope to tease apart the complex neural and muscular networks in insects."
before one of the humanoid robots tries to squish it?
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
... for real cockroaches. When Armageddon comes, the cockroaches will have robot versions of themselves for slaves.
Because they have six legs? Am I missing something here?
What they should really study are the effects of falling and intentionally missing, thereby attaining a state of midair suspension.
Will it flip on its back when runs out of batteries?
I've seen Robot Wars and the walkers never stand a chance...
For instance, imagine such a bot making a sandwich, and then cleaning your toilette...
And be sure to imagine it completing those actions in exactly that order. No one's been able to teach good kitchen hygiene to cockroaches yet, be they 'bots or bugs.
John Hancock wuz here.
We might finally learn where all these politicans come from, by studying cockroaches and other vermin.
--
make install -not war