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Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
Robotic centipedes developed by Ground Control Robotics have the ability to traverse complex farm lands. A sensor-equipped head attached to several identical segments connected by cables, each powered by a couple of motors that move its legs.
(Robotic centipede from Ground Control Robotics)
Their unique cable-driven legs generate a fluid-like thrust mimicking the motion of real arthropods, allowing these ‘robophysical’ models to “swim” through uneven ground without getting stuck or damaging crops.By carefully coordinating the lifting and lowering of legs, the robot can help it push off surfaces and maintain steady, reliable motion.
“We developed a new mechanism that shifts actuation from the robot’s centerline out to the sides via cables,” Goldman said. “When tuned correctly, the robot transforms from rigid to flexible in one direction, and that’s when the magic happens — it can swim through complex terrain effortlessly, all without any brain power.”
This is a centipede-inspired robot by Ground Control Robotics, designed for agricultural applications such as weeding and data collection. This robot is engineered to navigate challenging farm terrains, leveraging its elongated and flexible design to maneuver through crops… pic.twitter.com/Ya50ck94t5
— Wevolver (@WevolverApp) May 18, 2025
Science fiction fans may recall the next logical step in the development of agricultural robotic centipede from a whimsical story by Fritz Leiber.
In his 1958 story Bread Overhead! Leiber describes incredible robot centipede factories that prowl wheat fields, harvest the grain and then bake it into tasty loaves:
As a blisteringly hot but guaranteed weather-controlled future summer day dawned on the Mississippi Valley, the walking mills of Puffy Products ("Spike to Loaf in One Operation!") began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.The walking mills resembled fat metal serpents, rather larger than those Chinese paper dragons animated by files of men in procession. Sensory robot devices in their noses informed them that the waiting wheat had reached ripe perfection.
As they advanced, their heads swung lazily from side to side, very much like snakes, gobbling the yellow grain. In their throats, it was threshed... the kernels quick-dried and blown along into the mighty chests of the machines. There the tireless mills ground the kernels to flour, which was instantly sifted, the bran packaged and dropped like the chaff for pickup.
(Walking Mill from Bread Overhead!)...the dough was clipped into loaves and shot into radiance ovens forming the midsections of the metal serpents. There the bread was baked in a matter of seconds, a fierce heat-front browning the crusts...
(Read more about the Walking Mills)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/11/2025)
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