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

April 24, 2009
PICAXE is dead! Long live PICAXE!

Well we hate to break it to you, but the PICAXE-40X1 has kicked the bucket. Shuffled off the mortal coil.  Wacked, given up the ghost, became living-challenged, croaked, sprouted wings, snuffed out. "IT'S NOT DEAD! JUST PINING FOR THE FJORDS!" Well, that's not the case. But is does (did?) have beautiful plumage. But that's okay […]

July 12, 2007
Circuit: Herbie by Randy Sargent

Although not a true BEAM robot, this simple schematic by Randy Sargent is small, simple, slick, and effective. My own version uses a pair of pager motors and three cells from a 9V rechargeable battery. Hard to get any simpler than this device!

April 30, 2013
Solarbotics at Calgary Comic Expo 2013

Whelp, many moons have passed since we posted last time (er, maybe that's a slight exaggeration), and many a thing have happened. We went to Las Vegas to the Magento conference, lasered some ukuleles, but mostly were in a mad rush preparing for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo 2013. We teamed up with a […]

September 30, 2003
Solarbotics Sumo Workshops

We're involved with a couple of upcoming workshops featuring our Sumovore Mini-Sumo! (No local link yet, until it's officially on sale - sorry!) The first one is at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Open House in Edmonton, Alberta. Besides a mini-sumo, full-size sumo, fire-fighting, and line-follower, they're also running two workshops, one on […]

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.