Based on the biology of the cockroach, VELOCIRoACH is the fastest robot of its size in the world.
Posted 01.09.2013 at 4:29 pm
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VELOCIRoACH, The Robotic Cardboard Cockroach
The world’s fastest legged robot mimics the cheetah. The second fastest? The mighty cockroach. Not to be confused with a cyborg cockroach, VELOCIRoACH is a small, six-legged cardboard cockroach that can scramble across varying terrain and over obstacles at 3.2 meters per second (or just more than 7 miles per hour).
For its size, VELOCIRoACH is easily the fastest robot in the world--it can cover 26 of its own body lengths in the span of a second. It does so by employing legs much like those of the actual cockroach that act like springs as they hit the ground 15 times per second. At any given time three legs are touching the ground giving the robot very good stability. And, like the real thing, the cardboard cockroach can skitter right over obstacles by bouncing its front end upward and pulling itself over. It can even carry four times its body weight.
If the very motion of cockroaches doesn’t induce a skin-crawling sensation in you, check out the video below.
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And I shook my head and said, "nope" when I read that Cordwainer Smith's Manshonyagger (Mark Elf) had legs instead of wheels.
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This thing looks fast but I have to wonder about the controls. Not sure how easy this would be to turn or go backwards but he sure can make a b-line for a target!
This is better technology for future cosmic space planetary, asteroid probe\space lander, exploration.
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