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Tree Climbing Robot

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bugbot-crawling-its-way-to-the-top dept.

galactic grub writes "New Scientist's new Tech Blog has an article about a remarkable, if slightly creepy, tree-climbing robot being developed by robotics experts from Carnegie Mellon and several other US Universities. The article comes complete with a video clip of it going up several different surfaces."

8 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Transportatation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think it might be useful to build a larger version of this for bringing people up the sides of buildings where the stairs are wrecked and there is no elevator, or certain mountains or towers.

    Okay maybe not THAT useful, but still..

  2. From the makers of BigDog by Gedalia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is another robot built by the guys at Boston Dynamics http://www.bostondynamics.com/. The robotic pack mule that they built ( BigDog ) was linked to last Friday. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/ 04/0240246

    There's also Rhex a six legged waterproof go anywhere robot.
    more info at http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?sect ion=robotics

  3. Re:Flash required by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm old enough to have been on Usenet before the web was even around, I remember discussions at the time when people would post http:/// links saying that they should have been warning beforehand because most people were assuming ftp file access at the time.

  4. Re:Tree climbing robot for space exploration! by XenoRyet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Climbing a vertical surface shares similarities with clinging to an astroid with very little gravity, both can be bad when you let go.

    --
    If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
  5. KoalaChameleSloth? by ursabear · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What an ingenious invention! It looks like a koala crossed with a chameleon crossed with a sloth.

    This could have really great applications in search and rescue. Things like vertical tunnels, high-wire-stranded utility worker rescue, and maybe even super-high building rescue and search efforts. (Not to mention the military applications...) This type of robotic cyberkoala should have excellent searching capabilities where wheel-/track-based robots cannot tread due to vertical or surface condition issues.

    --
    A Passionate Independent Musician
  6. Replicators by micknz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They look strangely like the replicators on Stargate.

  7. A Walking Metal Plate ... Using Roach Legs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The union of organic and inorganic parts in advanced robotics is very interesting. An AI professor at my university once showed us a video clip of a robot some colleagues of his had developed. It used roach legs to walk. The robotics engineers took advantage of some receptor in the roach legs and applied electricity to a metal plate to make the plate/legs walk across a table. I'm certain timing the flow of electricity, etc. to the various individual legs was exceedingly difficult to figure out.

    Now imagine if you were able to do the same with gecko legs. The applications would be very interesting. Although if you are a gecko fan you might find the whole invention rather abhorrent.

    Z

  8. Reminds me of the sea lampry robot by technoextreme · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66005,00. html These scientists built a robot that uses the sea lampry's nevous system to control it. They replicated the signal by creating a circuit. Eventually they hope to have humans be able to walk again using these microchips. It's a rather unique way of approaching the problem.

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