![](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/5G5EHOW2FDEVMSP4ZRWV7ZUHZY.jpg?w=1000)
![](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/5G5EHOW2FDEVMSP4ZRWV7ZUHZY.jpg?w=1000)
A little feline philosophy for you all today. Thankfully, real cats are much better teachers. Robots are pretty clumsy. They’re also crazy expensive. This is a really bad combination. To solve this problem (and save a lot of skinned robot knees) Dr. Karen Liu at Georgia Tech is looking to two examples of graceful fallers: Divers and cats. She presented her research at the 2014 IEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). But for the rest of us, here she is to explain her research:
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mla7IiXE-8I/hqdefault.jpg)
Being able to quickly discern their orientation and twisting their bodies to compensate is a hallmark trait of cats—who famously always land on their feet. Destin over at Smarter Every Day dropped a bunch of cats in slow motion to show you exactly how they do it. For those of you at home, rather than dropping your cat, I recommend following the comic cat’s advice and just take a nap instead.
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RtWbpyjJqrU/hqdefault.jpg)
![Robot Diver You've been down too long in the midnight sea...](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/ZVGCVJSCWEY6RSYL4A4YSZKYWU.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)