Squirrel Parkour

[ysabetwordsmith]

Berkeley scientists are studying the biomechanical and mental abilities of squirrels.  Anyone who has ever tried to keep squirrels out of a birdfeeder knows they are extremely agile and deviously brilliant.  The idea is to gather inspiration to build better robots.

I have a suspicion this started with, "How do we beat the motherfucking cheetah?"  MIT's mechanical cheetah (really more like a dog, since the spine doesn't bend) is a leading edge of robotics agility.  But if Berkeley can build a squirrelbot, I'm going to call that a win.  <3 science.  :D

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Use a hydraulic gyroscope, like the tanks in ATLA?

Also be sure it has reversing ankles to maximize use of curved claws, like biosquirrels do.

Other climbing critters to use for inspiration:

- Sloths move on the underside of branches

- some birds have a reversible toe (so front-and-back toes can switch between 2:2 to 3:2 as needed.)

- Geckos. Their clingy foot-hairs are really interesting, but beyond my ability to coherently explain right now. (Long day.)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Sloths are good inspiration for things like camera mounts that need to move securely but not fast.

Some people have already tried to mimic the clingy feet of flies and geckos, with mixed success.

Re: Thoughts

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm...conceveably one could design a robot with sloth like "clawed feet" and rotating "shoulders" that could flip end-over-end to move. (Front claws latch, back claws detach, body pivots so the "rear" becomes the "front, new "front" claws latch, repeat.)

>>Some people have already tried to mimic the clingy feet of flies and geckos, with mixed success.<<

It might be possible to mimic in a custom room, or with a kind of specialized, hmmm, let's call it wallpaper. Think velcro, but half is the surface and half is on the "feet."

Then one would just need to figure out how to make a natural material be half of the velcro equation...

[kengr]

So they are studying fox squirrels to build better faux squirrels?

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

Good one!

[dewline]

We are asking for trouble here.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Robot rage movies are almost always based on military robots. So here is an opportunity for a totally different approach: Rampage of the Robosquirrels. They could climb anything and get into everything. Cities would be chaos with dogs chasing them and freerunners trying to catch them.

This is probably a comedy-horror movie in Terramagne. Yeah, I'll just make a note of that.

Re: Yes ...

[(Anonymous)]

I robow was ba and ed on a servant- loop ed uprising / coup, I think.

Sometimes I think if AIs did take over, we might not even notice for several days.

Re: Yes ...

[(Anonymous)]

*_I Robot_ was based on a servant-led uprising...*

I can type, I promise!

Re: Yes ...

[fyreharper]

And autocorrupt can hlep ;)

Re: Yes ...

[(Anonymous)]

Combination of autocorrect and my brain not cooperating...I think being more cheerful has thrown off my sleep patterns or something. Or maybe I'm just stressed.

RoboSquirrel Source Data

[margali]

They need to hookup with Mark Rober. He builds squirrel parkour courses in his backyard and talks about the physics of how they move. They could run a trial RoboSquirrel vs PhatGus and her gang.

Google Mark Rober plus Squirrel Obstacle Course. Do NOT eat or drink during first couple you watch.

[siliconshaman]

Occurs to me, if you can get squirrelbots to follow orders, and not be squirrelly too much, they would be very useful in the space construction industry.

[seleneheart]

I continuously marvel at the core strength of squirrels and their gymnastics to get to the bird feeders.