Eight-legged Robotic Vehicle Inspired by Strange Hallucigenia Creature
Posted on September 29, 2015
Japanese researchers have built a robotic vehicle inspired by the strange Hallucigenia creature. The robot is part of a project at the Future Robotics Technology Center (fuRo) of Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology.
CNET reports that the project is part of study reviewing the relationship between society and cars. Hallucigenia was a spiked worm-like creature that walked the ocean floor over 500 million years ago. The face of Hallucigenia was recently revealed when researchers were finally able to sort the creature's head from its tail.
The latest version of the robot is called Halluc IIx. It is meant to be a futuristic vehicle. It can transform between wheels and legs. In this way it could drive with its wheels on the road and use it legs to when needed on different types of terrain or walking to parallel park.
The robot has 56 motors and transforms into three different modes called vehicle, insect and animal mode. The robot was recently exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival 2015 in Australia. Take a look:
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