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Incredible Robots Walk, Roll, Climb and Cooperate

Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Sat Feb 24, 11:35 AM ET

They’re not quite Transformers, but new robots created by researchers at the University of Southern California are definitely more than meets the eye.

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Called “superbots,” they are made up of identical modular units that plug into each other to create robots that can walk on four legs like an animal [image] or two like a human [image], crawl like a centipede, climb like a spider, wiggle like a snake and even roll like a wheel [image].

“Superbot consists of Lego-like but autonomous robotic modules that can reconfigure into different systems for different tasks,” explained Wei-Min Shen, a researcher involved in the robot’s development. “This design allows flexible bending, docking and continous rotation. A single module can move forward, back, left, right, flip-over and rotate as a wheel.”

Each module contains its own power supply, sensors and micro-controllers. They can communicate with one another and even reshuffle themselves.

Shen recently presented the Superbots at the 2007 Space Technology and Application International Forum (STAIF) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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