Much like the impressive feats of strength that are found in insects, they’ve developed several tiny robots that are capable of dragging and carrying objects that are significantly heavier than their own bodies.
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New Tiny Robots Can Carry 2000 Times Their Own Body Weight
Engineers from Stanford University recently unveiled one of the latest breakthroughs in robotics. Much like the impressive feats of strength that are found in insects, they’ve developed several tiny robots that are capable of dragging and carrying objects that are significantly heavier than their own bodies. They range in size, with one minuscule bot that can carry a paper to clip, to a 12 gram machine that can drag 2000 times its own body weight.
However, the secret to their amazing ability doesn’t lie with insects, but with geckos. They’ve applied rubber spikes to the base of the machine that flex under pressure, thus creating a larger surface area to stick to. The engineers also borrowed from the humble earthworm when it came time to design the movement of the robots. One pad pushes it forward while the other stays still to support the weight, and prevent missteps. Some of them are so strong and stable, that they can hoist these weights while crawling up a vertical incline. Take a look at their astonishing strength in action.
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Contributed by Joshua Krause of The Daily Sheeple.
Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger .
