Move Over Optimus Prime, NASA’s Superbot Is Here!
If the movie “Transformers” is a fairytale, then NASA’s shape-shifting Superbot is a fairytale come to life. One major hitch, though: this robot is not programmed to battle the Decepticons of today. No sir; its mission is much more peace-loving in nature.
If NASA’s plans come to fruition (as they slowly are), here’s what this real-life transformer is supposed to accomplish: Start as 100 blocky modules that will be dropped from an airplane right smack in the
middle of a desert. Once it touches ground, the robot should be able to convert itself into a rover and maneuver around the vast area of arid land until it reaches a sand dune. Sand dune, you say? No problem. The Superbot can easily traverse it by “growing” legs and climbing up to the top. Once there, it again reconfigures, this time into a greenhouse that would serve as protection for newly-planted seeds for two weeks.
Superbot is made up of about 20 modules which have been built over the past two years since the project was started. The concept of designing and putting up a virtually all-in-one robot (or at the very least many-robots-in-one) was thought to be an ambitious undertaking but while still a work in progress, it’s gradually taking shape. Or taking on different shapes is more like it.
Right now, the formation of 20 modules that merge into Superbot already has the ability to create combinations with two, four, or six legs. And having the structure of a legged creature isn’t all that the Superbot’s combinations can do. Try inching along like a caterpillar, moving like a robotic snake by slithering or using a sidewinding motion, forming a rolling track, and even shimmying up ropes. It can even curl up into a ball and simply roll downhill if that’s what’s needed. Check out the videos below to see what we mean.
No, scientists behind this aren’t just watching too many Transformers movies. Perhaps, robots that can change into trucks or fighting machines is still far off ahead, but one thing is clear: the NASA Superbot is the future of the shape-shifting robots.
