Robot Grasshopper Now Has Wings

August 26, 2009 by · Leave a Comment

RobotNext posted a story on this microbot in October of 2008 as an example of robots that are modeled on biology.  This is a follow-up to that article.  Apparently, the original group developing this little grasshopper bot has now put wings on the mechanical grasshopper to give it the ability to glide after it jumps in the air.  The objective of this research is to develop a small robot that can leap into the air and then glide to a target.  I still find it amazing to watch the video of the robotic grasshopper jumping into the air.   Go to the post from October 2008 to find links to the French site that details the work being done on this.

Grasshopper Microbot with Wings

Credit: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Last May, we wrote about a 7 gram robot grasshopper that is capable of jumping a distance of 1.4 meters, which is pretty huge for such a small robot.

Robot Grasshopper Grows Wings
Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:04:22 GMT

Filed Under: Nature, Robots · Tagged With: , , , ,

iRobot Ember Ushers in Era of Military Microbots

May 17, 2009 by · Leave a Comment

Check out the following article from Robot Stock News on a new small and potentially disposable robot for use by the military.  This continues the development of military robots that will be partners with soldiers on the battlefield.  An excerpt from the article follows below and there is a link to the full article at the bottom of the page.


iRobot Corp. has developed a new microbot for military applications — the paperback-sized iRobot Ember!  This hot new bot, still in the prototype stage, is featured on iRobot's new Facebook page for its PackBot family. As you can tell from the photos iRobot posted on the page, Ember resembles a miniaturized PackBot, complete with iRobot's flipper technology allowing it to right itself and climb over obstacles.

The iRobot Ember was developed under DARPA's LANdroids program, which is intended to create teams of tiny robots for military applications, including, as the name implies, setting up an ad-hoc network of hotspots. The robots are intended to be about 1 pound each, be smart enough to detect and navigate around obstacles and ultimately cheap enough to be considered disposable.

 iRobot Ember Ushers in Era of Military Microbots
thorn_stevens (noreply@blogger.com)
Sun, 17 May 2009 11:36:00 GMT

Filed Under: Robots · Tagged With: , , ,
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