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'SpiderBot' shoots tethered plungers to move around like Spider-Man
From the Ben Gurion University's robotics lab in Israel comes the SpiderBot, which gets around in much the same way as the Man. The robot's webs are actually tethered plungers that it can pull away from a surface, reel back in and then aim and shoot with its swiveling arms. It's still a little slow when it comes to getting around, but could this wall-climber be the first step toward a robot that uses swinging as its main method of locomotion?
Not much else is known about the SpiderBot. Will it fight crime? Just crack-wise? Who knows.
Click Continue to see a video of the SpiderBot in action.
(The good stuff happens about halfway through.)
Via Robots.net
By Poda at 6:25 PM ON 08/26/09
Whoa, at that blistering 4x pace I reckon crime fighting might be limited to slugs and snails.
By bzkoss at 7:00 PM ON 08/26/09
There are some things best left to humans...
By Adragonateher at 12:44 AM ON 08/27/09
The Music that was chosen for this is worth more than that piece of junk in the video. Can we not get something that we can use out of these people or is the whole point just to invent something usless that has never been thought of before!
By theoriginalgiga at 1:05 AM ON 08/27/09
I don't know, it looks like something that will be useful down the line. Remember this pioneered technology, just like the very first motorola cell phone which could dial, send and receive calls, this is in it's infancy. Think of the applications that the vector plotting a computer could do for it's goal, such as analyze how something will hang and if it'll interfere with obstacles, or if a cable snaps what possible outcomes that could be detrimental and what a response team could run into.
As for the whole spiderman thing, well yes it's a sluggish robot, but it could be used to ferry people back an fourth under a bridge, or move large objects without taking up floorspace.
My point is, don't look at it for what it is in it's infancy, look at the possibilities. I mean do you parents look at your babies and say "oh he's not the build for a football player, so lets not enroll him into sports" and let his potential talents go to waste.
By saris at 8:50 AM ON 08/27/09
"As for the whole spiderman thing, well yes it's a sluggish robot, but it could be used to ferry people back an fourth under a bridge, or move large objects without taking up floorspace."
There way better and safer ways to do that. I for one would rather not trust my life to a suction cup.
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saris:
"As for the whole spiderman thing, well yes it's a sluggish robot, but it could be used to ferry people back an fou...More »