Superbots are the real-life Transformers

[JBeukema]

NASA wanted a robot that could start as 100 blocky modules dropped from an airplane to a desert, reconfigure into a rover that could drive to a sand dune, and then change again to "grow" legs and climb up it. Once the blocky robot reached the top, it would transform into a greenhouse that could protect a group of seeds for two weeks.
Only 20 of the modules were built during an ambitious project more than two years ago. But together, they are known as Superbot.
"You could build a lot of different robots where each does different things, but that would be too expensive," said Wei-Min Shen, director of the Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory at the University of Southern California.

Superbots are the real-life Transformers - LiveScience- msnbc.com


superbot - Google Videos#

 

[Amanda]

Got bots on the brain tonite?