Posted on 06/04/2020 9:37:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Harvard researchers have made the tiny Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot (HAMR) even tinier. The next-gen, cockroach-inspired robot is about the size of a penny, and it can run at speeds of 13.9 body lengths per second. That makes it one of the smallest and fastest microrobots to date. The team also believes it’s the most dexterous robot of its size.
Dubbed HAMR-JR, the robot is a half-scale version of its predecessor, which researchers taught to swim and walk underwater. The team built HAMR-JR, in part, to test whether the origami-inspired manufacturing process used to build HAMR and other microbots, like RoboBee, could be used to build robots at multiple scales -- from tiny bots like HAMR-JR to large, industrial robots. They found that they were able to keep the design just as complex, even at the micro-scale.
The researchers also wanted to see how shrinking a bot would impact its running speed and other abilities. They shrank the four-legged HAMR-JR to just 2.25 centimeters in body length -- it weighs in at about 0.3 grams. The team mimicked the movement of similarly-scaled insects, so HAMR-JR is able to trot, jump, bound and pronk. It can turn left and right, and it can trot backwards.
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
Yeah but how does it compare to the Fantastic Voyage?
It has shrunken it’s reputation for quality a whole bunch more!
Now they need to work on the 40 lb battery pack it needs.
That was my first thought as well! How long is its extension cord? If only someone were to invent a way to transmit electricity safely, without wires, to a particular device or receiver . . . Wasn’t Tesla allegedly working on such a thing?
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