This article was taken from the March 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
With its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, Google now owns a donkey-bot -- not the most promising species to turn into a Terminator, but we all have to start somewhere. Wired rounds up some more real-world animal-inspired projects.
Real-life penguins are flightless, but German firm Festo's helium-filled robots can swim in the air. They communicate with each other via ultrasound, flying in a group and navigating around a defined area.
Created by the MIT biomimetics robotics lab, the gecko-inspired Stickybot's footpads are covered in hairs made of rubber silicone.
These let it climb smooth surfaces by exploiting van der Waals forces.
Salamandra Robotica II, from the Federal Technology Institute at Lausanne, can swim, crawl and walk. It is a tool for examining the neural circuits underlying vertebrate locomotion.
Northeastern Marine Science Centre, based in Massachusetts, has built a robot lobster. Designed for autonomous remote-sensing operations, it is intended to patrol rivers, detecting underwater mines.
AeroVironment and Darpa's "Nano Hummingbird" can fly for ten acrobatic minutes. Want one? The Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab has a kit that kids can build and then program using a Raspberry Pi.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
