The Sand Flea weighs 11 pounds, and on flat ground it drives like a typical radio-controlled car. But when it meets an obstacle, it can jump 30 feet into the air. That's high enough to reach the top of a flight of stairs, the roof of a typical house, the other side of a high wall, or jump through a second-story window. It can jump about 25 times on a single charge.
Sand Flea uses gyro-stabilization, a technique employed for stabilizing radio-controlled flying vehicles, as well as movie cameras used in the film industry. This provides a clear view from the robot's onboard camera, and helps it stay level during flight and ensure a smooth landing.
The four-wheeled 11-lb Sand Flea robot can jump 30 ft into the air, and uses gyro-stabilization to stay level during flight and ensure a smooth landing. (Source: Boston Dynamics)
The six-legged RHex robot's mobility is based loosely on the behavior of a cockroach. It works especially well on loose sandy soil, river banks, mud, rocky inclines, railroad tracks, and up telephone poles, slopes, and stairways. Its body is entirely sealed and it can swim or dive underwater.
RHex runs for up to six hours on a single battery charge and weighs 30 pounds, so it can fit into a backpack. It is controlled remotely up to 600 meters from the operator control unit. Front and rear views from onboard cameras are accessed over a video uplink. RHex also uplinks navigational data from an onboard compass and GPS and from its payload.
Boston Dynamics is the well-known developer of the first robots to run and maneuver with motions based on animals, such as the BigDog, Petman, Cheetah, and AlphaDog.
Watch videos of each of these robotic bugs in action:
Good points, Tool maker. I believe you say it all in your first paragraph. Given two opponents with equal determination and commitment, technology wins.
Rob I normally do not like to comment on references to wars, but you touched a sore spot here. For a war to be won; first tehr must be a clear cut objective and then there must be either an adversary willing to admt defeat or the total anihilation one side. I do not care if it is sticks against bombs, if the sticks are willing to wait long enough, centuries even, eventually the bombs will tire of the effort, declare victory and go away.
Guerilla tactics cannot win a war, it can merely prolong it until the other side tires of the exercise. Robert E. Lee saw that when he commanded the south to drop their weapons and go home, rather than continue to fight on a guerilla basis.
The anihilation tactic was evident in WW II. The Japanese had vowed to fight to "the last man" and the US demonstrated not only the ability, but perhaps even the willingness to kill the last man when Truman ordered the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Only then did the Japanese government call an end to hostilities.
The reason for the ineveitable outcomes in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan is because there are factions in each that are/were willing to wait as long as necessary while random bombings, suicide attacks and various similar tactics break down the will of the outsider's populace to support the activity.
My goodness, Ann. That's an impressive development. So potentially, a robotic earthworm could be created that would mimic two major aspects of an earthworm: the ability to burrow underground and the ability to process underground material into rich earth.
I'm not so sure that making topsoil from trash is a joke. A couple of different microbes have been discovered that can or have the promise to, digest plastic and make it compostable. Theoretically, armed with some kind of delivery mechanism, robotic earthworms could then make that idea a reality.
I understand, Ann. I'm just surprised the concept is getting tossed around. That proposed idea is an interesting application for robotic earthworms. I would certainly guess the notion of it making topsoil from trash is a joke. But who knows, it might show up sometime as a trash mining apparatus.
I thought you'd like these. Of course, a prediction isn't by any means a set of schematics, but it will be interesting to see if anyone takes them up on that idea and starts working on one.
That's pretty good, Ann. Forecast number four is robotic earthworms. My goodness. They take it a step further, having the robotic earthworms digest the trash to make topsoil. That's great.
OK, Rob, you got me curious. Wouldn't you know, there's a combination of predictions from the World Future Society about robotic earthworms for landfills to help with biodegradability and extracting metals and plastics (Forecast #4--the whole list is interesting):
I agree about the serendipity of Lawrence's death, a freak accident after everything he had lived through. What a tragedy. I think Korda's book is an exceptionally good read and covers a lot of history in the process. Since Lawrence was busy making that history, that's not hard to do in a biography of him.
As energy efficiency becomes more and more a concern for makers of electronics devices, researchers are coming up with new ways to harvest energy from sound vibration, footsteps, and even electromagnetic fields in the air.
The government wants to study your brain, and DARPA wants to use similar information to give robots true autonomy beyond any artificial intelligence developed to date. Sound like science fiction? It's not.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
3 
