A robot that’s the new insect

Posted by Tanya Hall

June 17, 2008

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s a… hexapod called Libby. For those of you who thought the advent of the electric fan was impressive, you aint seen nothing yet!

Libby is the brain child of Paul a man who obviously doesn’t see fear in an insect; he sees inspiration. His hexapod is a small mobile robot project whose movement can be negotiated from a computer. Controllable insects: I love evolution. Libby’s lovely legs have three degrees of freedom making them so realistic, that I was quite glad that he had it attached to a podium to prevent it climbing up someone’s leg stick-insect-style. Impressive as Libby already is, Paul has set out to make alterations to her, including incorporating a wireless capability so that she can wander free and aim for as many bare legs as are in the room. Excellent.

Paul has also challenged himself to make her more compact so that he can fit her into the hand-luggage for when he flies to various hexapod-related events. I think this is a great idea, purely to see the look on airport security’s face when he opens his bag to reveal an automated part of the Terminator.

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