Just keep them far away from us.
Creepy Robo Crawlers
Engineers have developed a giant robotic centipede that can scuttle across farmland to root out weeds.
As IEEE Spectrum reports, Georgia Tech spinoff Ground Control Robotics has created a bio-inspired centipede that uses sensors and plenty of motor-actuated limbs to control weeds.
“Centipede robots, like snake robots, are basically swimmers,” founder Dan Goldman told IEEE Spectrum.
“We created a new kind of mechanism to take actuation away from the centerline of the robot to the sides, using cables back and forth,” he added. “When you tune things properly, the robot goes from being stiff to unidirectionally compliant. And if you do that, what you find is almost like magic — this thing swims through arbitrarily complex environments with no brain power.”
Never Too Many Legs
The unnerving contraption was designed for fields with difficult terrain, where large-scale automation can’t operate, such as extremely steep and rocky wine grape hills.
Ground Control Robotics is hoping to take the weight off human farmers, who often have to spend long hours checking plants’ health and pulling weeds. It’s especially relevant on farms that don’t use pesticides to keep pests and weeds at bay.
The idea is to eventually have a whole host of these robotic centipedes swarming around fields around the clock.
For now, the company is working with a Georgia-based blueberry farmer and vineyard owner on pilot projects, according to IEEE Spectrum.
Eventually, if its creepy crawling robots turn out to be a success, Goldman is hoping to deploy them for disaster relief and even the military.
For one, their appearance could certainly make the enemy’s skin crawl on the battlefield.
More on robotic farmers: Google’s Parent Company Is Building a Farming Robot
Share This Article