Revolutionary new wheelchair boasts hands-free backrest-based steering

Steering a wheelchair to the left or right can be a strenuous, inefficient process, in that you have to brake with one rear wheel while pushing harder on the other. A clever new chair addresses that problem in a brilliant fashion, by using a moveable b… Continue reading Revolutionary new wheelchair boasts hands-free backrest-based steering

Super-slo-mo video captures the sickest backflips in the animal kingdom

Despite what you might say when drunk, you’re not the best backflipper in the world. That honor belongs to a tiny little bug called a globular springtail, whose superfast backflips have now been caught on slow-motion camera for the first time.Continue … Continue reading Super-slo-mo video captures the sickest backflips in the animal kingdom

Super-slo-mo video captures the sickest backflips in the animal kingdom

Despite what you might say when drunk, you’re not the best backflipper in the world. That honor belongs to a tiny little bug called a globular springtail, whose superfast backflips have now been caught on slow-motion camera for the first time.Continue … Continue reading Super-slo-mo video captures the sickest backflips in the animal kingdom

Video: Snail robot climbs vertical walls without leaving a slimy trail

Snails are great at climbing vertical surfaces, even though they have just a single wet suction-cup foot. A new bio-inspired robot climbs walls by mimicking that simple yet effective mechanism, although thankfully it leaves a trail of water instead of … Continue reading Video: Snail robot climbs vertical walls without leaving a slimy trail

Video: Robo erectus – W1 quadruped robot evolves to stand and walk upright

You might think that having four legs with wheels on the ends would already make a robot pretty useful. China’s LimX Dynamics is taking things further, however, as its W1 quadruped robot is now able to stand up and walk on two “feet.”Continue ReadingCa… Continue reading Video: Robo erectus – W1 quadruped robot evolves to stand and walk upright

Soft caterpillar robot moves its body by origami-power

If a soft-bodied robot uses rigid actuators to move its body, then it isn’t really soft now, is it? An experimental new caterpillar-inspired bot gets around that conundrum by using soft, collapsible origami segments to squirm and steer its way into our… Continue reading Soft caterpillar robot moves its body by origami-power

Video: Iron-shelled robo-snails swarm together for off-road tasks

Even though snails are slow and slimy-bottomed, they’ve inspired a new type of robot that could be quite useful. Groups of these bots can operate independently or join together in order to perform tasks that would otherwise be impossible.Continue Readi… Continue reading Video: Iron-shelled robo-snails swarm together for off-road tasks

Video: Multi-talented underwater robot uses fins to swim, walk and crawl

A new underwater robot can swim through the water with fins, and walk or crawl along the bottom when necessary. These capabilities could really give it a leg up – pun fully intended – at outperforming its traditional thruster-powered counterparts.Conti… Continue reading Video: Multi-talented underwater robot uses fins to swim, walk and crawl

Video: ultra-efficient Flying pogo robot bounces around on its tail

By hopping like a person on a pogo stick, a modified aerial drone can operate for almost an hour as opposed to several minutes if it simply flew. Descendants of the aircraft could one day find use in applications such as wildlife monitoring, crop inspe… Continue reading Video: ultra-efficient Flying pogo robot bounces around on its tail

Video: ultra-efficient Flying pogo robot bounces around on its tail

By hopping like a person on a pogo stick, a modified aerial drone can operate for almost an hour as opposed to several minutes if it simply flew. Descendants of the aircraft could one day find use in applications such as wildlife monitoring, crop inspe… Continue reading Video: ultra-efficient Flying pogo robot bounces around on its tail