Wound-helix robot leaps and bounds over obstacles

Remember that “dancing pencils” game schoolchildren played, where they passed two pencils through a small rubber band, twisted them repeatedly, and then let go to make the pencils jump around as the band unraveled? Turns out they were onto some serious futuristic robotics, as scientists are now applying a roughly related principle to facilitate movement in robots.Continue ReadingCategory: Robotics, EngineeringTags: UCLA, locomotion, University of Michigan