More Robot Wars

Wednesday, February 13. 2013

Two stories on the slate:

Flying Microbots - BBC

British soldiers in Afghanistan will use tiny drones, the Black Hornet Nano drones, which weigh about 14g/half an ounce and measure around 4 x 1 inches (100mm x 25mm0. They carry a camera and can fly for about half an hour. Allows soldiers to see what is around without being in the line of fire. It's also part of what the Ministry of Defense calls a larger push for surveillance and intelligence-gathering tools.

Jumping Microbots - Physics.org

The three-legged jumping system begins life as a mold created by a 3-D printer. The robots are molded using soft silicone that allows them to stretch and flex. But where pneumatic robots are connected to tubing that pumps air, the jumping robots are connected to tubes that deliver a precisely controlled mix of methane and oxygen. Using high-voltage wires embedded in each leg of the robot, researchers deliver a spark to ignite the gases, causing a small explosion that sends the robot into the air.

Maybe HG Wells' Martian tripod fighting machines didn't so much walk as hopped

Trends to watch here: Small, soft bots in the air, meshed bots (the Internet of Flying Things) plus small controlled explosions. And print-your-own (war)bots.

Posted by Alan Patrick in Robotics at 22:13 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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