This gleaming black hexapod could be yours to command
Posted 04.11.2011 at 5:22 pm
21 Comments
Hexapod Spider-Bot
via Robots Dreams
Meet KMR-M6, a new arachnid-like robot from Japanese manufacturer Kondo Robot that you can own for just under $900. It scurries around like a curious spider, waving a leg when it encounters an obstacle and stepping gingerly to ensure even footing.
It has only two servos per leg, one for vertical control and one for horizontal, which reduces costs. A system of springs and bar linkages gives the robot added flexibility, according to the Japanese robot blog Robots Dreams. It is designed to handle uneven terrain, although it’s pretty impressive to watch it march, goose-step-style, on a flat surface.
Along with the hexapod kit, Kondo will sell individual legs and parts, so home robot builders can design whatever they want — like heads or tails for cameras, sensors, grippers and other uses. The spider-bot will set you back 76,000 yen, or about $880. Kondo expects to begin shipments in early May, targeting the education and hobbyist markets.
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that's not CREEPY, per say... uh... yea, ok, that's kind of creepy.
GOTTA LOVE THEM ADBOTS
ADBOTS FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can anyone say Wild Wild West?
ya know, i just can't help myself; a spider-bot would have 8 legs.... and two pedipalp appendages for manipulating objects.
catchy name though!
shutterpod, double amputee? :D
i want one! didn't tom selleck do a movie with similiar robots?
Would be nice if it could hop...
lol! quad even... and Selleck did do a movie with robotic poisonous bugs... and the guy who sicced them on him get stabbed by all of them, i think...
I'm with shutterpod on this, I'd like to believe that people would know the anatomical differences between an insect and an arachnid. It doesn't even have two body segments! Come on!
@drchuck1: Yes, the movie was called Runaway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_(1984_film))
technically its not a spider because it only has 6 legs... its a robo-insect!
This is what NASA should be using with better shoes of course for Mars exploration. Those rovers get stuck to easy and a spider wouldn't (if they have adequate shoes).
An 8 legged spider design would be almost impossible to trap anywhere as it could use emergency moves to ball up and reset itself with legs down and out.
In fact it could get down hills in a hurry by rolling up into a ball and rolling down the hills much like a potato bug.
It might require a nuclear powered battery but that's what they should be using anyway!
further proof that you don't have to be able to count to be a robotics engineer.
anyone else seeing tachikomas in our future?
This whole thing is lame until it can move faster then a quarter mile an hour.
It needs felt feet. And it looks like a crab who had is pincers and forelegs surgically removed. Cool though.
okay. im pretty sure spiders have 8 legs not 6..
i agree with yer.mom. jesus can anyone count here?
It will kill you in your sleep...if it doesn't wake you up first.
dosnt this look like a spider? and it would be cool if i counld hop or at least climb walls
This is awesome. I totally need one.