"We're looking at how bees do their tasks, how certain animals hunt, at animals with interesting physical abilities, like a gecko," said Devine. Eventually, the scientists hope to develop one microrobot that can walk like a spider, climb like a gecko, fly like an insect, hover like a hummingbird and cooperate like bees, all while gathering still images, video, radar and other information that can be sent back to commanders in the field. The microrobots will range in size from a few inches in length to the size of a hand. They will have a range of a few city blocks, said Devine, and will be carried either by a larger robot or a human close to their target before being deployed. Other major partners in the project are the University of California-Berkeley, California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of New Mexico, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. "This is really cutting-edge research," said Kellar Autumn, a professor of biology at Lewis and Clark University not involved in the new project but who has created a robot that can climb walls using the same methods a gecko does. "This is realistic," said Autumn. "They won't get something that climbs exactly like a gecko in a year, but they will get something that climbs close to a gecko." Related Links: Eric Bland's blog: What the Tech? |
advertisement
Put Discovery News on Your Site!
|
-
our sites
-
video
mobile
-
shop
-
stay connected
-
corporate
