Robot Reviews

Sure you can toss iRobot's PackBot into the enemy's hideout and it will easily absorb the shock. This robot can do that too ... 'cept that it can toss itself in as well.

Future development of the Precision Urban Hopper, Sandia National Laboratory's shoebox-sized hopping robot, has already been awarded to Boston Dynamics. In effect, that takes this robot closer to being rolled-out into the Army. Boston Dynamics is best known for its intimidating 4-legged alpha male - the Big Dog.

The Hopper has a special leg that can propel it up to over 25 feet. That height is more than enough to make it easily clear most obstacles. 

Funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the hopping robot is expected to be ready for delivery by the end of 2010.

Although designed to hop, it is supposed to use its 4 wheels most of the time. That means, it will only resort to hopping once the need arises and hence save on precious energy. Just like all robots designed for the Army, this one can withstand shock forces associated with falling and being thrown around. It is also equipped with GPS and is already semi-autonomous.

Right now, the shoes that the Precision Urban Hopper is hoping to fill belongs to the iRobots PackBot, that's busy defusing bombs and conducting reconnaissance missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. That should be pretty large shoes to fill knowing that the military are extremely satisfied with the PackBot's performance ... Why else would they be ordering more of these machines worth millions of dollars?

Other robot makers are training their sites on those shoes as well. We recently featured EyeDrive, a 5.4-lb handheld robot (yup, imagine tossing a netbook without worrying about smashing it) that can provide 360-degree audio-visual information to a remotely located controller.