The robots developed by Thomas Bewley and his team at the Coordinated Robotics Lab at the University of Califonia, San Diego, may look rather simple at first. But it turns out these 'bots are capable of impressive acrobatic maneuvers.
The Switchblade rover can balance on the tip of its treads and climb stairs by flipping itself end-over-end. iHop balances itself by using its wheels as gyros and it can hop on its pogo-stick of a leg.
Check out the video below by Spectrum's Josh Romero, showing how the UCSD engineers are giving their robots new ways to move.
Previously:
Boston Dynamics Demo Shows Robot Jumping Over Fence
Boston Dyanmics to Develop Two-legged Humanoid (And a New Hopping Robot in Their Spare Time)
Erico Guizzo is the digital product manager at IEEE Spectrum. He oversees the operation, integration, and new feature development for all digital properties and platforms, including the Spectrum website, newsletters, CMS, editorial workflow systems, and analytics and AI tools. He’s the cofounder of the IEEE Robots Guide, an award-winning interactive site about robotics. An IEEE Member, he is an electrical engineer by training and has a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.
