Robots are the future… I just hope my robot butler doesn’t try to take over the world.
Starfish:
The mechanics behind this robot are simple, a torso and four legs, but the software is truly an epic feat. The brilliant minds at Cornell wrote this software as an experiment in locomotion, specifically to emulate how animals learn to move (and humans if you are of an open mind).
The starfish starts life without knowing how to move, it then has the ability to learn what motors move each body part and rapidly discovers how to walk. Technically this is an awesome bit of programming, but it also has some impressive potential applications. For instance, the starfish can adapt to being crippled, thats right it can learn on the fly. This kind of system could be implemented in say a mars rover that might benefit from some autonomy.
Epic Robot Swarms:
Robot Swarms may be the future, tiny resource light robots that alone are crap but together can basically eat a small child. The above video shows an example of what a robot swarm might be able to do. A swarm of building blocks connecting to share their processors and increase mobility, frankly we are not that far off.
Squid robot:
An epic robot concept, squid take almost no energy to run, hell take the robot they already have and slap a wave energy generator on it and their is your epic robot. The video is from robot watch at impress.co.jp.
The Big Dog:
I would be extremely surprised if you didn’t already know about the Big Dog, it has been around since 2008 but the idea hasn’t aged a day. While Boston Dynamics makes a number of epic robots, Big Dog is their crowning achievement, just watch the video and see for yourself.
Robot Butler:
there is nothing I like more than robot butlers! Someday instead of doing anything I will just have a robot, I’ll become obese but hell I’ll have an epic robot butler! This is a pretty good step. Although, it would be so much better if they threw in a vroomba base.
Cyborg Beetle:
Now imagine if they could do this for humans…
Photo(s): Flickr|jimbradshaw
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