Through a rather simple equipment, a giant amoeba command the movements of a six-legged robot. Perspective: draw some manufacturing secrets that will one day be useful to robots.Quand the robot to six feet away from itself a source of light placed nearby, it does to any software or even a network Neural. The pilot is… a mold! More precisely Physique polycephalum, a strange organism in forests under the fusillades. This nice six-legged robot moves systematically light. However, no programme and no human would command him to do so.
This kind of yellowish giant amoeba, which is usually a few millimeters but may reach thirty centimeters, eats bacteria and small mushrooms. It has no legs and no body. All the cells were merged into a single plasmodia. Biologists rank among the myxomycetes, along with a few zoological curiosities hardly classifiable or plants or animals.
In short, this modest living being is nothing that can make it the ideal driver for a hexapod robot. Yet the role that made him played Klaus-Peter Zauner, Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (United Kingdom), in collaboration with a team from the University of Kobe, Japan. The driver, it’s him! This Schumacher Car hexapod is a kind of mold inform, moving like an amoeba. Continue reading →
Nuvo, the walking robot of Japanese ZMP, will be offered for Christmas at a price of $ 4,600.It measures 15 inches, walking on two legs, is if it falls, and may dress in several colors. But look no similarities with his colleagues under development at Sony or Honda, which look like humanoids whose marketing is not yet valid. Car Nuvo is its name, has no head so that they can more easily maintain a balance. Likewise his arms were reduced to its simplest expression, with balls without fingertip instead of mains. It responds to simple voice commands, like “advance” or “stop” and can be driven remotely ‘ Using a cell phone. Continue reading