Virginia Tech's new CHARLI-L robot

CHARLI is actually a series of robots that initially consists of the 5-foot tall CHARLI-L (or lightweight, pictured above), and the forthcoming CHARLI-H (or heavy), both of which are completely autonomous, with a full range of movements and gestures thanks to a series of pulleys, springs, carbon fiber rods, and actuators (not to mention some slightly more mysterious AI). What's more, while CHARLI-L is currently restricted to walking on flat surfaces, CHARLI-H promises to be able to walk on the uneven ground around the Virginia Tech campus, and eventually even be able to "run, jump, kick, open doors, pick up objects, and do just about anything a real person can do."

This robot reminds me a lot of the machines from I, Robot.  I can't wait until machines like these are ninja-ing around  the world.

Spider Robots in Pictures

Wired has a great/creepy archive of arachnid automatons.

A hundred tiny feet...

This might be an awesome project for next semester's Mechatronics students.



The legs are based on Theo Jansen's designs.  You can get a good idea of how they work through this Actionscript Physics Engine simulation. My favorite "Strandbeest" is the Animaris Rhinoceros: