Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
MIT 3D One-Leg Hopper Robot Circa 1983
MIT's 3D One-Leg Hopper robot was built in about 1983; it was a tethered monopod robot used for experiments on balance and dynamics in legged motion.
Compressed air provided motive power, hydraulics provided hip movement and it could hop at up to 4.8 mph. It was even shove-resistant, as shown in this video about our old friend BigDog.
Here, however, in glorious LD (low definition), is MIT's 3D One-Leg Hopper robot:
(MIT's 3D One-Leg Hopper robot video)
I seem to recall that Bruce Sterling used this idea in his 1994 novel Heavy Weather:
Then she saw it too. A bouncing machine... It was crossing the hills with vast, unerring, twenty-meter leaps. A squat metal sphere, painted in ragged patches of dun and olive drab. It had a single thick, pistoning metal leg.
(Read more about Sterling's mule robot)
I'm pretty sure that there was a patent for a one-legged hopping robot that dates back to the 1940's, so it's not a new idea.
Update: Thankfully, readers have a better knowledge of my database than I do. In his 1954 novel Lucky Star and the Oceans of Venus, Isaac Asimov writes about the hoppers:
Hoppers are probably the most grotesque forms of transportation ever invented. They consist of a curved body, just large enough to hold a man at the controls. There was a four-bladed rotor above and a single metal leg, rubber-tipped, below. It looked like some giant wading bird gone to sleep with one leg folded under its body. Lucky touched the leap knob and the hopper's leg retracted. Its body sank till it was scarcely seven feet from the ground while the leg moved up into the hollow tube that pierced the hopper just behind the control panel. The leg was released at the moment of maximum retraction with a loud click, and the hopper sprang thirty feet into the air...
Thanks to Winchell Chung of @Nyrath and also Atomic Rockets for the reminder. End update.
You're probably wondering "What would it be like to ride a hopping robot?" Check out this Prototype Jockey-Ridden Hopping Robot video:
(Prototype Jockey-Ridden Hopping Robot)
MIT 3D One-Leg Hopper Robot story via BotJunkie.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 4/2/2010)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
ESTHER Tennis Robot V. Fact (1934) And Fiction (1952)
'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...' - HB Fyfe, 1952.
EELS Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor For Enceladus
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.' - Susan Brownstone, 2012.
Helpful Robots In Science Fiction
'If you douse me again... I'm donating you to a city college.' - Iron Man, 2008.
SayCan with PaLM - Google's Robot Helper
The older I get, the more interested I am in helpful robots.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
ESTHER Tennis Robot V. Fact (1934) And Fiction (1952)
'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...'
Japan's LignoSat Space Wood Satellite And Dan Simmons' Treeship
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
Skyline Robotics Instantiates Heinlein's 'Window Willie' Skyscraper Robot
'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
Drone Bombings In Moscow Foreseen 100 Years Ago
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
I Didn't Know You Can Already Buy Flesh Putty
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'A Sign in Space' Gives Practice In Decoding ET Messages
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
Melting Permafrost Endangers Infrastructure
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
EELS Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor For Enceladus
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
Lazy Lawyer's Trust In ChatGPT Misplaced
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
Paradromics Implant FDA 'Breakthrough Device'
'I used my implant to tell MILLIE what we wanted...'
Mice, At Least, Can Sober Up Quickly
'Then draw some aldodote-vitamin pills from the medic.'
Is It Time For Lunar Farside Telescopes?
'Mount Ambarzumian Observatory, on Farside.'
Spaceflight Vertigo Solved By NASA Releasing The Kraken
"I threw up in my helmet."
TM-62 Loitering Ground Landmine
Runaway movie comes to life!
Helpful Robots In Science Fiction
'If you douse me again... I'm donating you to a city college.'
Lunar Pogo Stick - Retro Technovelgy From 1968
'Lucky touched the leap knob...'
