The Llama walking robot, being developed by NASA ARL Public Affairs
The current generation of robots with legs are significantly less efficient than they could be, which means the future for such machines may be bright.
Alexander Kott at the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, Maryland, and his colleagues have performed an assessment using the Heglund formula, which describes the power needed by an animal of a specific size to move at a given speed. Originally used to study animals from cockroaches to elephants, it has now been applied by the team to wheeled and tracked vehicles.
The…
