By 2113, every Child will have a Velociroach

The VELOCIRoACH is a 30-gram cardboard hexapod (a six-legged walking robot), measuring 10cm long, and can run up to 2.7m/s, making it the ‘fastest legged robot built to date’.

 

Strictly speaking, a robot called LS3 holds the record for the fastest self-powered robot with a top speed of 3.2m/s. But relative to its tiny size, VELOCIRoACH has an incredible ability and because of this, it is able to cross a distance 26 times that of its length in just one second.

 

The robot isn’t named after a cockroach for nothing; VELOCIRoACH’s inventors modelled its structure on the anatomy of cockroaches, which have thin, springy C-shaped legs allowing the robot to touch the ground 15 times per second.

 

Three out of its six legs are always touching the ground, in a tripod formation, to keep it stable, and despite being mainly cardboard, the 10cm bot can carry up to 4 times its own weight.

 

The VELOCIRoACH 2.0, as it were, is planned to mimic a cockroach even more closely by withstanding its arch nemesis, the human foot.

I want one; they are so COOL. Anybody else fancy a VELOCIRoACH scuttling around their home? I can't imagine why you wouldn't!

 

 

 

References: NewScientist, robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu, YouTube (video)