From Richard Swifte
Your article about an autonomous shipboard firefighting robot built for the US navy (14 February, p 22) caught my attention, particularly because it is bipedal.
This surprises me, since bipedal robots tend to be cumbersome and slow – not ideal for a rolling ship, especially in stormy conditions.
Surely a robot using wheels or a caterpillar tread would be much more stable, and better able to mount steps without losing its balance? Or am I missing something?
Darmstadt, Germany
