Video: Swift, Indestructible Cockroach-Robots. The End Is Nigh
Posted in: R&D and Inventions, Today's ChiliDASH is a cheap, featherweight robot based on a cockroach. And like the cockroach, it is both quick and almost indestructible.
Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod (we’re sure the name was made to fit the acronym) is made from cardboard laminated with flexible polymer using a 3D printer. Because it weighs just 16 grams, it can survive falls of indefinite distance, and a single DC motor inside the rectangular body is cleverly hooked up to the six legs so that they spin together like the oars of a boat. Thus the row-bot skitters across the floor in a spookily insectoid manner at 1.5 meters per second, or 15 times it’s own body length. That’s like me crawling along at more than 90 feet per second.
The DASH, a design by the Biomimetic Millisystems Laboratory at the University of California, will perhaps morph into a stiffer, more powerful carbon-fiber version. All we know is that the end of days is nigh. Equip a swarm of these with lasers and it’s all over for mankind. For best effect, listen to the chillingly HAL 9000-like voice of the video’s narrator along with Brian Eno’s 2001 album Drawn From Life. Shiver.
DASH: Resilient High-Speed 16-gram Hexapedal Robot [YouTube via the Giz]
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