Frogbots! Solar-powered, at that!

Dave Hrynkiw
December 15, 2000

I missed the full segment of this story last weeks on "Discovery Channel's @discovery.ca" program, but fortunately, the've put the segment online at their website. I seems that JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories - NASA essentially) is working on a solar-powered, single-footed robot frog. This seems like a GREAT idea for extra-terrestrial planet-surface locomotion. Check out the videos and see for yourself. Additional information at Space.com Even more technical information is here and here, in these Adobe Acrobat files from one of the researchers, Paulo Fiorini. Here's his homepage. And this is his dedicated Frogbot hompage - lots of interesting info!

Oh, and if you scroll to the bottom of the Discovery Channel / EXN page, you'll find a nice video clip of our favorite Roboticist, Mark Tilden. They shot this a few years ago, and I'm glad to see they resurrected it to be on this page.

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MORE POSTS

February 22, 2002
May issue of Discover Magazine

Mr. Tilden informs me that his experiments with 40 B.I.O.Bugs in the desert of Whitesands, New Mexico will be detailed in the May issue of Discover Magazine. I've seen some of his personal pics of the experiment, and it is indeed impressive photography. Keep an eye out for this issue!

March 28, 2005
Robots using GM15s

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. If you didn't already know, Solarbotics has been moving offices, and it's taken a surprising amount of effort to get everbody/thing moved and settled. Beyond that, I've found some time to websurf...just a bit! A GM15 linefollower? Neat!(Update!:)He's just posted a video of it going ~40cm/s (although he's […]

June 3, 2010
BeetleBot for Sale!

Well forks, it's been a long time coming, but it's here at last. THE BEETLEBOT! <cue the massive applause> What's so fantastic about it? Well for the first time ever we've released a completely soldering-free kit.  This kit is assembled solely with screws - there's no need for snips, pliers, or a bajillion other specific […]

May 15, 2003
WCRG Finished!

Thanks to all that came out to the robotgames last weekend, and our Solarbotics / APCircuits Mini-sumo workshop on Friday night! We kicked...erm...said good-bye to the last participants at about 2 in the morning! Fun was had by all! Expect pictures soon... Regards, Dave

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