Beavers and bugs inspire robotic creations

Rest assured, this won't be the first or last time you hear of insects and mammals being used as inspiration for robotic creatures. Nevertheless, a recent MIT mechanical engineering course saw students craft bots that could handle "beaver-like tasks" such as "knocking down trees and gathering food in the form of street hockey balls" while fending off competitors in 45-second rounds. Separately, the EU-funded SPARK endeavor is seeking to "develop a new robot control architecture for roving robots inspired by the principles governing the behavior of living systems and based on the concept of self-organization." There's plenty more material to make your skin crawl in the read links below, just don't feed the mechs, okay?

Read - SPARK project
Read - MIT competition

[Madoc @ May 15th 2008 3:37PM]

"gathering food in the form of street hockey balls"

...I am so confused

[ugg.tryptophan @ May 15th 2008 4:21PM]

if we take away the street hockey balls, they'll starve (no hockey balls+crazy raspberries=human win)

[ugg.tryptophan @ May 15th 2008 4:21PM]

if we take away the street hockey balls, they'll starve (no hockey balls+crazy raspberries=human win)

[kyle allen @ May 15th 2008 5:28PM]

gorged!? on my street hockey balls? the federation will here about this.

go find mr. Darvin, and in the mean time.... someone close that door.




.... did u catch the totally random reference?

[Onetruebill @ May 15th 2008 9:11PM]

I understand your confusion.
Street hockey balls have "No nutritional value" this is why you NEVER see a breeding population of robotic beavers in the wild...
Poor bastards.
Now if they could learn to eat iphones....
Well you all see where this is going.

[OneLove @ May 16th 2008 3:23PM]

Give me a robotic beaver any day.

[couchpundit @ May 15th 2008 3:37PM]

Dude, "Beaver" and "Bug" should never be used in the same sentence unless you intend on giving men the willies.

[Tim @ May 15th 2008 6:01PM]

an actual robotic beaver is not what i had in mind when i read "beaver robot".

[klew @ May 15th 2008 9:24PM]

says the person who used the words "men" and "willies" in the same sentence.

[elbrando @ May 15th 2008 3:44PM]

Ah, the sound of inevitability!

Humanity's children descend...

[hughbie93 @ May 15th 2008 4:10PM]

Canada Is Attacking With A Swarm Of Robot Death Beavers!

[kyle allen @ May 15th 2008 5:29PM]

eh?

[ugg.tryptophan @ May 15th 2008 4:15PM]

no machine should handle "beaver-like tasks"

[fanthem @ May 15th 2008 4:56PM]

Don't they have those types of machines in Japan?

[Stem $ell @ May 15th 2008 9:26PM]

@ ugg.tryptophane.... Comment of the week! (Jerry Mathers and I are rolling in the aisles)

[Rattlehead @ May 15th 2008 4:51PM]

I believe this is the first generation of robots leading up to Mega Man bosses. I want my armored armadillo!

[AlexL @ May 15th 2008 10:51PM]

I'm a Beaver!
You're a Beaver!
We are Beavers all,
And when we get together, we do the beaver call!
e to the u, du dx,
e to the x, dx;
cosine, secant, tangent, sine,
3.14159;
integral, radical, mu, dv;
slipstick, sliderule, MIT!
Go Tech!

[Loomis @ May 16th 2008 12:12AM]

The slipstick and sliderule have now been replaced by Java and Matlab. You know, something more useful than a slipstick for the average Course 6er, and it's got a better ring than "OOP via C++, MIT!" The good news is that the beaver cheer is still getting used.

More on topic, if you're looking to check out some hot beaver action, the 2.007 finals are online: http://web.mit.edu/webcast/2.007/2008/mit-2.007-finals-08may2008-220k.ram