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New robot does the worm, for real
Sure, we've seen plenty of robot snakes in the past, but none like this robot earthworm being developed at Chuo University in Japan. The same research department that showed us the incredible Strider bot, is now demonstrating a machine that can move on open land and along narrow passageways, using the same method of peristalsis as the average night crawler. Each section of the body expands and contracts in a specific order, thus enabling the rubber-gripped bot to move inside of a tube with almost no lateral motion, even when crawling straight up. We can see how this technology, which NASA is also working on, could be used in fields like geology, robofishing and medicine, even though watching the videos on the site and seeing the word "catheter" in the article made us more than a little uneasy.
Robot Strider walks on water and, eventually, land
We know you're still reeling from the awesomeness that is the robotic panda and other more aquatically-inclined robots we've seen in the past, but the Strider is actually as useful as it is impressive. From what we gather from a trail of liberally translated links is that this radio-controlled bot, which is being developed at Japan's Chuo University, uses 6 legs to propel itself across the water like the ones MIT and Carnegie Mellon have been developing for a while. The outer legs are made of buoyant resin to keep it afloat, while the middle legs provide the driving force. Eventually the developers are hoping it will be able to move flawlessly from the water onto land, making it a valuable tool for aquatic rescues, especially when equipped with a camera. Even if it never gets that far, the videos on the source link suggest it would make a pretty killer pool toy.[Via Robot Watch]
