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

July 18, 2013
Thursday Cool Links: Switch Sign, Blinky...

Wednesday naturally turns into Thursday, so the links seamlessly migrated from Wednesday to Thursday too... They are not allowed to Friday though, otherwise they will turn into pumpkins. Er, I mean Friday-not-so-cool links. Which will be just unacceptable! Hello World. A sign built from 5,000 rocker switches. An enormous grid made of 5,000 orange rocker […]

January 9, 2012
Phones are Up

Well, we've found the ringleaders in this little impromptu telecommunications insurrection and took them out back, where we switched from our standard 'beat with a metaphorical hammer' to 'beat with an real hammer'. Which worked so well, actually, that our phones are now back up and behaving themselves. We can now take calls without any […]

July 23, 2011
EZ-B Wall-E, Even More New Stuff

So last week we put the EZ-B Robot Controller Suite up for sale, and what appears up on Hack A Day not long after that? This impressive modified Wall-E that has a built-in camera, voice recognition, and object tracking. And what does it use to control the whole show? That's right, an EZ-B. This would […]

September 5, 2006
Turbot Review @ StreetTech!

Just got the word that Gareth Branwyn posted a review of our Turbot on his website at Streettech.com. Thinking of getting a Turbot? Here's a straight-shooting review! While you're there, take a look at the Solaroller article that was just posted. Neat stuff!

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.

cart