Sunday, February 27, 2011

Carnegie Mellon University & Biorobotics

Carnegie Mellon University's biorobotics lab has been working on a project involving snake-like locomotion in a robot.  I'm linking a video of it rolling itself up the base of a small tree below.  As you can see, it's demo is still tethered for power which is one issue that will take some work to resolve.  Could be an interesting strategy for movement through difficult terrain in military applications, and definitely for surveying and searching for survivors in wreckage caused by natural disasters.  Having robots like this (search robots are already being used for natural disaster survivor searches) raising questions on what is and isn't possible currently is what will drive the industry forward.  CMU is awesome, if I can't afford RPI this fall I'm definitely applying there to finish my undergrad, heh.  Anyway, enjoy the video and let me know what you think.

42 comments:

  1. This is very good research, it will definitely be useful for many different applications. The video is interesting. Thank you for sharing! Following!

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  2. I honestly laughed my ass off when it started climbing up, I really don't know why! But this is a really cool vid thanks for sharing

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  3. This robot will be useful in the future, not only to search for survivors but also for any kind of research in places where man can not go.

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  4. Thats quite impressive, although the little tube makes me thing is it providing water for some sort of system like that or what, I doubt that it is doing that without some sort of aid from whatever hose is attached to it.

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  5. Looks like there are still a lot of improvement done, but still this might be promissing

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  6. thats awesome! i want one haha, even tho i know thats what they are for tho

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  7. I do not see the use of this robot. Maybe a coconut grabber at the most.

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  8. Alright, now that is really cool. I had no idea something like this even existed.

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  9. This is awesome, I bet the military would greatly benefit from it too.. it amazes me the technology our generation can come up with

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  10. interesting post, more of these sort! i ll follow

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  11. That is a badass robot! I hope it can be useful.

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  12. this kind of robot would be excelent at rescues of earthquakes.

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  13. my comments on the video:
    "oh no"
    "oh god it moves so icky"
    "it's trying to go up the tree"
    "oh it's going right up the tree"
    "ew"

    still afraid. cant helpit.

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  14. That is beyond cool, technology never ceases to amaze me

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  15. science never ceases to amaze me

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  16. although it looks funny, this would be really uselful

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  17. crazy what they can recreate now, thx for the share!!

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  18. Excellent robot
    alphabetalife.blogspot.com

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  19. I saw this! amazing video, thanks.

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  20. I would really enjoy working on this kind of stuff or cybernetic implants when I get my engineering degree in the next couple years.

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  21. I looked at this again and it amazes me still

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  22. Nice stuff. Science is awesome!

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  23. Wake me up when Ghost in the Shell is here.

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  24. I love your blog, I'm totally following!

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  25. Oh wow, reminds me of Wall-e in that clumsy but lifelike sense.

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  26. Maybe in the future a microscopic version will be engineered which can be used in medicine.

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  27. Woah, how fast are we progressing with robotics? I remember how we had a struggle to get them to walk, but now I see pancake flippers, 4-legged all-terrain walkers, and now climbing robots?

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  28. wake me up when gundam is here

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  29. Thanks very much, it's nice to see some CMU stuff on here. :)

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