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Cockroach-Like Robot to Help Explain Animal Movement

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the on-all-sixes dept.

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."

4 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Already been done!

    The best way to study their movement is to mount railguns on them, and fire them at random, confusing the hell out of the little guys...don't believe me?

    http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/205/18/ 1803/i

    Check out the picture!

  2. Re:I work on this... by feelyoda · · Score: 4, Informative

    also, you can get more info here:
    http://www.rhex.net/

    look for the great video of the tumble from a pile of boulders, which doesn't seem to be a problem.

    I wish I could see ASIMO take a fall like that...and watch the subsequent execution of the grad student who let it happen.

    --

    Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
  3. Rodney Brooks said it best by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Informative
    When an ant walks, it's falling over all the time. The trick is that it catches itself with its legs.

    You can get a load of his work from the documentary Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control.

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  4. Not the only people doing this sort of thing by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Informative

    Read about competitive work here.