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

March 14, 2017
Web Links Tuesday

Magnetic storage reaches the atomic level The magnetic field of a single atom is read and written, but it's not very stable (Via ArsTechnica) Magnificent Cardboard Airships by Jeroen van Kesteren Beautifully crafted and intricate fantastic ships made of cardboard (Via Colossal) Google X Levi's touch-sensitive denim jacket Embedded conductive threads make it touch and […]

September 16, 2010
NYC, New hires, Pick and Place, & M...

NYC: Yup, we're tired of the drizzly weather here in Western Canada and are packing up and heading East to the land of Cheesecake and subways. We're registered for the Open Source Hardware Summit and we're helping out at the Maker Shed at the Maker Faire. That, and we're going to do some sight-seeing. New […]

November 7, 2009
Closed for Rememberance Day (Nov 11th)

Hey everyone! The first week of November has already slid by, and that puts us coming up to Remembrance Day, or Veteran's Day for our pals in the US. We'll be closed on Wednesday, November 11th to observe the event. We will resume the processing/shipping of orders and responding to any correspondence we've received when […]

August 26, 2010
Strange set of Atmel '328 ICs...

Unlike Sparkfun, who actually manage to find fake Atmel ICs, we just get strange batches. The Atmel ATMega328 is the power behind the Arduino/Freeduino/*duino, and we have to set up a programming system to burn the venerable Arduino Bootloader into these chips. We normally use an AVR STK500 in HVSP (high voltage serial programming) mode, […]

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.