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Remember Ant-Roach, the inflatable robot that looked like the lovechild of a dildo and a wildebeest? Roboticists at Harvard have constructed an even weirder biomimetic balloon. This soft robot, which was developed by Harvard's Whiteside Research Group, takes its cues from pliable fauna like squid, starfish, and worms. According to its creators, "this robot is quadrupedal; it uses no sensors, only five actuators, and a simple pneumatic valving system that operates at low pressures (< 10 psi)." The only thing stopping this bots from squishy conquest is the air tube. More »
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Meet Ant-Roach, Otherlab's pneumatic robot that weights 70 pounds and can support 1000 pounds of weight. It's not the most mobile vehicle out there, but when's the last time you were able to deflate a golf cart? Otherlab is also working on other "pneubotic" devices, like prosthetic arms that can lift several hundred pounds. You can read more about these devices at Hizook. More »
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This is MABEL, a bipedal robot who currently resides in a lab at the University of Michigan. Although MABEL has no head and needs a guiding bar to navigate its tiny gymnasium, this jogging robot can maintain an eerily human 6.8-mile-per-hour strut. More »
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They hover, spy, take photographs, fire missiles. But there's just one major problem with drones – they're too damn loud. Now Iarpa, the intelligence community's blue-sky research division, wants to hush them up. And it's turning to nature's own stealth flyer for inspiration. More »
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Engineers building robots usually have a choice between making a fast machine or a flexible one. But now engineers at Tufts University are changing the game with "soft robots" who can worm their way into hard-to-reach places very quickly. More »
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In desperate need of a more efficient structure for their tiny solar cells, engineers turned to the world's foremost expert on nanotechnology: Mother Nature. The corneas of flies are the perfect nanostructures for the next generation of solar cells. More »
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When you think of autonomous, unmanned spy vehicles, you probably imagine the telltale shape of a small aircraft overhead, and the suspicious sound of whirring propellers. Spy vehicles, however, aren't just for the sky anymore. The U.S. Navy has funded the development of an autonomous, unmanned vehicle shaped like a fish and capable of covering up to three times the distance of a typical UAV using the same battery. It's called GhostSwimmer, and it'll be entering our waters in 2009. More »
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This mind-bendingly cute thorny devil lizard is one of the most sought-after creatures in the engineering world because it has a special talent: drinking through its foot. Using cracks in its scales, this little guy can wick water up through its foot into its body. Materials scientists hope that by studying how the lizard does this, they can invent substances that absorb water in a similar fashion. And bioengineers might go further. More »
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