2012 - Science News: Space, Evolution, Archaeology & Cataclysms

2012 [ News Blog of Survive2012 ]

Monday, 6. September 2004

2012, September 6, 2004 at 11:39:00 PM AEST

A Climbing Robot

The spider-like robot, called Lemur, was developed by engineers at Stanford University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, as a prototype for a fully autonomous rock climber. It can already follow a human climber up an irregular surface without any guidance from a controller. And it has a spookily human gait.

At present it doesn't have any skills that supercede humans, and it cannot see (the route needs to be pre-programmed)... BUT, one day it will be super-human, and coupled with its relatively expendable nature, highly useful for search and rescue, exploration, and, dare I say, warfare.

Source: New Scientist