Rice University researchers are pioneers in the field of necrobotics—reanimating dead creatures as robots. They've demonstrated how a tiny dead wolf spider can become an air-powered gripper that can pick up tiny electronic parts from a circuit board. Video below. From IEEE Spectrum:
Spiders are basically hydraulic (or pneumatic) grippers. Living spiders control their limbs by adjusting blood pressure on a limb-by-limb basis through an internal valve system[…]
This means that actuating all eight limbs of a spider that has joined the choir invisible is relatively straightforward. Simply stab it in the middle of that valve system, inject some air, and poof, all of the legs inflate and straighten[…]
It can lift 1.3 times its own weight, exert a peak gripping force of 0.35 millinewton, and can actuate at least 700 times before the limbs or the valve system start to degrade in any significant way. After 1,000 cycles, some cracks appear in the dead spider's joins, likely because of dehydration. But the researchers think that by coating the spider in something like beeswax, they could likely forestall this breakdown a great deal. The demised-spider gripper is able to successfully pick up a variety of objects, likely because of a combination of the inherent compliance of the legs as well as hairlike microstructures on the legs that work kind of like a directional adhesive.
During a match at the Moscow Open chess tournament, a chess-playing robot apparently grabbed and broke the finger of its 7-year-old opponent. "This is of course bad," said Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation. Of course. From The Guardian: Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, told [the Baza Telegram channel] the… READ THE REST
Someone—possibly in Russia—apparently strapped a submachine gun on a ~$3,000 robot dog available from AliExpress. Vice points out that the gun is a Russian PP-19 Vityaz submachine gun made in Russia and that along with a Russian flag and other insignia seen in the video, the vehicle in the background is a Russian BDRM-2 armored… READ THE REST
Last week, a robot boat arrived in Plymouth Harbor in Massachusetts. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship made the 40 day journey of 3,500 miles from Plymouth UK with the help of an AI system designed through a collaboration between IBM and a nautical research company called Promare. As the Boston Globe explained: The five-ton, 50-foot-long, triple-hulled… READ THE REST
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. What did we do to deserve dogs? When they aren't obsessing over a favorite toy, napping adorably, or shooting longing looks at distant dinner plates, dogs are putting in the work.… READ THE REST
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. It's the middle of summer, which means you're off doing stuff nearly every weekend. But that also means you have to get in and out of your parked car, which probably… READ THE REST
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Whether you're hanging out in your buddy's backyard on a Sunday afternoon or roughing it on another camping trip with the family, sometimes you just need to give those feet a rest and… READ THE REST
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