BELGIUM: Imagine a giant, mechanical stick bug that comfortably traverse small steps and rough terrain like loose gravel. In other words, all the normal accommodations that’d hypothetically keep these creatures from coming into your house through the backyard.
Okay, so this isn’t quite a tear-jerking moment, but it’s still a paramount achievement in robotics. As you’ll optically discern in the video below, all of Hector’s six insect-like legs move independently while reacting to unexpected transmutations in terrain.
They shift to maintain balance on slippery ground, and raise themselves above minuscule obstacles the moment they sense resistance. Hector’s is just a proof of concept for now, so he won’t be crawling outside of a lab any time anon – probably a good thing, since he doesn’t have ocular perceivers.
