A Japanese company has just designed a robot that makes climbing ladders look like child’s play. It might not be as smooth or realistic as humans, but it’s still pretty cool.
According to our source, the robot was design by the Osaka-based industrial equipment giant Muscle Corporation. Along with the help of some smaller companies, their team of engineers and robotics experts managed to design and build the robot in a period of just under three months. Talk about time management.
That’s not to say that this robot is a simple piece of machinery. Standing at 1.4M tall, weighing in at 30kg it manages to ove with the help of five motors based inside its body to help control and maneuvre its appendages.
The robot has working arms and legs which it uses to reach out to pull itself up ladders. Movement wise, it looks a bit like a goofy human or a baboon climbing a tree. Check out the video below to see this robot in action and see what we mean.
The interesting thing is that it uses both its hands and feet to grab on to the bars. Rather than just using a simple hook and latch system, the robot is able to grab things properly, with sensors that transmit data to the motors instructing how much pressure is needed for the robot to be able to pull itself higher on the ladder. Once one arm firmly grasps a bar, the motors are instructed to send the next hand up, followed by the legs and so forth.
This robot was first showcases last year at the Shangai Expo, but it’s recently news of the project has only recently become more accessible.
In other news, check out a team of Flying Robots that built a tower and Roboden: The World’s first stretch cables.
