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qbot

Caterpillar robot's recoil too quick to see

Ever notice how some caterpillars can recoil violently when bothered? Researchers at Tufts University are intrigued by this behavior, and have built a lightning-fast robot that replicates it.

GoQBot, described in a study in the journal Bioinspiraton & Biomimetics, emulates the "ballistic rolling" escape tactic employed by some Crambidae caterpillars. The bugs curl into a wheel when threatened and leap to safety.

The recoil happens within 100 milliseconds, which the Tufts researchers led by Huai-Ti Lin, describe as "one of the fastest self-propelled wheeling behaviors in nature."

Exactly how the caterpillars achieve this is a bit … Read more

Cute Qbot aims to be Model T of robots

Where's the robot revolution already? It's 2010! Aren't we supposed to be hip-deep in droids by now? Well, Spanish robot developer Francisco Paz thinks he's got the makings of a proverbial Ford Model T for robots, a cute little number called Qbot.

Qbot may lack arms and legs, and it may look like a knockoff of NEC's perennially underemployed PaPeRo, but it's got several features that make it interesting. One is that it's designed to be an interactive home robot based on readily available open-source software and hardware for DIY upgrades. Another is … Read more