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.

Read More...

MORE POSTS

November 13, 2008
HexPummer Lanterns!

Our K HP HexPummer has always been a good, steady kit, but once we got our laser-cutter, we started experimenting... and was it ever neat to tuck one of these into a faux Japanese-style lantern! After upgrading two of the four LEDs with super-crazy-mega-bright LEDs, this solar-powered night-activated light show is quite a cool decoration, […]

November 24, 2003
Jemez Valley BEAM Workshops

Kurt Moore of the Los Alamos National Laboratories has been busy using BEAM technology to bring technology training to the local schools in the Jemez Valley. Here's what one class did!

November 16, 2009
New Instructables!

Our clear breadboard was recently blogged on Makezine, which reminded me we juuuust about had an instructable ready for that same item. So, a few hours later, it is finished and posted. And while I was at it, I finished editing another Instructable by Jerome Demers, our intern. He did up a DIY Miniball instructable […]

February 15, 2011
Hakko FA-400 Smoke Absorber

It's cool. Well, not quite. But it's smoking. Umm,  that's not right, either. It's anti-smoking. Whoever redesigned their 493 smoke absorber did a pretty good job - it's much better than it was before! And Hakko even posted a cool video showing how good it is (sorry, can't embed the video here).

Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.

Copyright © 2024 Solarbotics Ltd. All Rights Reserved
cart