We seem to have crossed some sort of developmental threshold in terms of getting the made to act more like the born. This video, shot at Wired’s NextFest, shows The Salamander, an amphibious bot built by BIRG (the Biologically Inspired Robotics Group) at L’ Ecole Polytechnique Federal De Lausanne, in Switzerland.
Salamandra robotica @ BIRG – [via] Link
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10 thoughts on “Salamandra robotica at NextFest”
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I know that I should probably keep my mouth shut and not criticize, but I’m not super impressed with things like this until they don’t have tether wires to some computer. Like the three-legged thing (Strider)that was circulating on Engadget today (which was obviously wired). The mechanism is cool, and it looks great, but until you manage to get the logic (and especially the power supply!) into the device, it’s just a crude proof of concept. Dealing with the bulk of the power supply, and how to miniturize the logic is probably 90% of the problem with anything that’s going to be free walking/slithering/swimming. Sorry for the rant. It does look cool.
Perfectly legitimate criticism, David. So no need to apologize. But it’s still cool, as you say, which is why we posted it.
Does anyone have any idea how it was waterproofed? I am making a robot that will spend large amounts of time in the water.
Mr Robotics Says: If you look at the Salamander robot, you’ll see a thin, translucent tube following it. The tube is hollow and non-electrical- it provides a positive pneumatic pressure to the salamander, preventing water from entering the system. However, as is clear from the video, the pressure provide zero buoyancy to the device, it only provides inward leakage.
That is how they waterproof the thing.
Mr. Robotics, who is a jaded guy when it comes to robotics, declared that the Salamandra was the coolest thing at NextFest.
Incidentally, speaking of wired versus non-wired, if you look at one of the later LittleDog videos, you’ll see that they do actually have it wire-free, making it just that more cutely creepy.
Mr Robotics Says: If you look at the Salamander robot, you’ll see a thin, translucent tube following it. The tube is hollow and non-electrical- it provides a positive pneumatic pressure to the salamander, preventing water from entering the system. However, as is clear from the video, the pressure provide zero buoyancy to the device, it only prevents inward leakage.
That is how they waterproof the thing.
Mr. Robotics, who is a jaded guy when it comes to robotics, declared that the Salamandra was the coolest thing at NextFest.
Incidentally, speaking of wired versus non-wired, if you look at one of the later LittleDog videos, you’ll see that they do actually have it wire-free, making it just that more cutely creepy.