It’s no secret that we love bizarre robot locomotion, so we are naturally suckers for BALLU (YouTube link, also embedded below) the Bouyancy-Assisted Lightweight Legged Unit. The project started with a simple observation — walking robots are constrained by having to hold themselves up — and removing that constraint make success much easier. Instead of walking, BALLU almost floats and uses what little net weight it does have to push against the ground.
The legs are really just sticks that bend in the middle, with motors and cables that control the bend. Lift one leg up, and the center of gravity falls slowly toward that foot. Eventually stretching it back out provides forward force. That’s the gimmick, and the challenge lies in piloting the thing, and at the moment it looks to be run on remote control. It’s not going to be as simple as “turn-right-motor, bot turns left”, that’s for sure. And as the video demonstrates in its last few minutes, you don’t want to pit the thing up against a strong breeze.
Anyway, if you can’t get enough odd robotic mechanisms, here’s a recent snake bot, a swimming fish, a wobbling pile of servo jelly, and a single-motor wave worm. Like we said, we <3 odd bots.
[Thanks [Itay] for the tip! via Gizmodo]
Reminds me of the leg drone in metal gear solid 4…
I think what they should learn from this is the correction for balance from the balloon actually aids the walking of the robot itself, if they could replicate this with something that would perform the same balancing function do you believe they could make it walk without a balloon?
I think 5 years for a truly walking robot.
XD!!!
LMAO. 10 points for griffindor, or something.
I mean, if students can’t have fun building robots, then what? I would have restricted the hip joints a bit, they woobly a bit too much for my taste, but that’s nitpicking.
Not wind compatible … and definitely not for dog owners … LOL
Go home robot, you are drunk!
Stupid sentence about gravity (no, we CANNOT invert the direction of gravity!).
the idea is innovative, but who will refill periodically the baloon? anyway for some kind of jobs (i dunno what, but i am short with immagination) this mechanism could be the right answer.
I can invert the direction of gravity whenever I want.
That’s wonderful! Floating Walking Robot races is something I’d like to see.
When is a robot a robot? If you remove the electronics from this thing (and maybe even the “legs”), it will move much smoother.
this form of robot might become incredibly useful if we had a better way of producing buoyancy.
i wonder if one could make containers strong enough to use vacuum as a lift agent.
Are you pissing me? A vacuum container only is the mass of the missing Helium lighter than a balloon. What about a legged quadcopter?
“i wonder if one could make containers strong enough to use vacuum as a lift agent.”
The answer to your question is “almost certainly not”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_airship
You save 14% with a vacuum as opposed to Helium according to the article you linked. So if you had a material strong enough but not heavier than a latex balloon you would save 14%. Not worth the effort by any comparison. Hydrogen is much lighter though. Hydrogen weighs less than a gramme / Liter so that is more sensible if you want to increase lift as opposed to the hundred something g/L Helium weighs. .
Ups: He 0.118 g/L H 0.089 g/L
I dunno, a honeycomb structure combine with modern composites might be able to pull it off…barely. The classic ‘entire envelope is one big hollow’ idea can’t work, but include some honeycomb style internal structure inside for reinforcement…
What about places with a less dense atmosphere. Say, Mars? Or is it an equilibrium thing? Less dense atmosphere, the bigger the bubble should be, the harder it is to keep its structure?
If it could carry a small load, it might actually be more viable than many delivery type robots!
I feel much more confident about the upcoming robots VS humans war now.
In case of robot overlord takeover, grab a pointy stick.
Why not put a fan/propeller aimed backwards so that the little fella could get some forward speed?
Now just add electromagnets on its feet and conquer the steel tiled roofs!
I just leave this here:
QWOP
Now it just needs a voice module so it can shout “Parkour” before it jumps off of buildings.
QWOP anybody?
It’s a neat artsy project but I can’t think of any possible practical applications for the design.
This. It seems like there’s been more effort put into the presentation/videography/CGI-models than the actual device.
Walking on the gas giants, or their moons.
An idea worth exploring, even if not immediately useful.
I would love to see this little bugger with a gyroscope (or improvised gyroscopic device that might be lighter and close enough in function) for mild stabilization.
Most painful audio EVER.