Hasta La Gadget!

In June we were promised a Kickstarter for Project Hexapod’s 10-foot tall, two-ton Stompy. We’re happy to report that Gui Cavalcanti and his cohorts (James Whong and Dan Cody) at the Artisan’s Asylum weren’t kidding. This morning the page went live and you can officially pledge your support for rideable six-legged robots. Now that the chassis is 80 percent through the design phase, the half-scale prototype leg (Gimpy) has proven its mettle, and the full-size prototype leg has been designed and the necessary parts ordered, it’s time to start lining up funding for the final project. You know how it works: you pledge a certain amount of money and in return you receive a particular level of reward. Don’t have much to offer? For just $5 the team will scale the White Mountains and shout your name from the top, while $10 will get you get you something a bit more tangible — a bumper sticker that reads “my other car has six legs.”

Continue reading Stompy gets off the ground with a Kickstarter: buy a ride on a 2-ton hexabot

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Stompy gets off the ground with a Kickstarter: buy a ride on a 2-ton hexabot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By far the greatest challenge for robots with legs is staying upright when the going gets rough. A team at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kod*lab has a hunch that we don’t need extra smarts to make that happen — just an extra appendage. The upgraded X-RHex Lite (XRL) carries a tail that will swing in the right direction to keep the robot upright if it’s caught out by a fall, much like a cat. That’s impressive for a nearly 18-pound robot (the previous Tailbot was 0.4 pounds), but we’re pretty sure no feline has six springy legs; the XRL can crash to the ground and still get back up like it ain’t no thing, which gives it a fudge factor others don’t have. We don’t know if the hexapod critter will lead to more than further experiments. If there are fewer stuck rovers on future exploration missions, though, we’ll know who to thank.

Continue reading X-RHex Lite robot grows a tail, always lands on its feet (video)

Filed under: Robots, Science

X-RHex Lite robot grows a tail, always lands on its feet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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