Georgia Tech's Sand-running robot

[adam.klaptocz]

Teams at Penn University and Georgia Tech have tackled the problem of sluggish robot movement on sand. Following a study of the locomotion of lizards on the ground and in water, they have built a six-legged robot with curved, C-shaped limbs instead of wheels.

Discover magazine:
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/04-the-robot-designed-to-master-mars
Team Leader Daniel Goldman's lab
http://www.physics.gatech.edu/research/goldman/index.htm

[Marvin]

This guy looks very similar to Boston Dynamic's RHex: http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/s ... ction=RHex - any connection?

[Marvin]

There's also a swimming version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vm-gQ9_H9I

[Markus Waibel]

Yes, as far as I know it's the same bot. I think the Crab Lab team at Georgia-Tech helped optimize the movement in sand based on a study (http://www.physics.gatech.edu/research/ ... /index.htm).

Daniel Goldman's SandBot, a six-legged robot with curved, C-shaped limbs instead of wheels

SandBot.png (69.26 KiB) Viewed 2086 times

@Marvin: You double-posted

[Marvin]

@Markus: Oops, depressing, thanks, corrected.

[Sabine Hauert]

This reminds me of Roger Quinn's Wheel-Legs ( Whegs : http://biorobots.cwru.edu/projects/whegs/ ).

[Markus Waibel]

According to the last link the RHex actually preceded Quinn's Whegs... In any case the concept seems very versatile - one of Metin Sitti's Waalbots shows another application of the same idea: http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waal ... -leg.shtml

[Markus Waibel]

The RHex is even more amazing than I initially thought! Folks over at McGill university have gotten the robot to walk on 2 legs:



A bipedal RHex!

[Markus Waibel]

PS: For those of you who want to know what the cool RHex bot looks like:

Boston Dynamic's RHex Robot

RHex-Robot.jpg (29.79 KiB) Viewed 2141 times

[Johnny 5]

Video below; skip to about halfway for slow motion!




Make sure to also check out the recent Robots interview with Bob Full, who is the biologist behind these robots!