Innovative 20-Legged Argus Robot Rolls Without a Compass

Engineers at Duke University built a family of robots around one steady goal. They wanted machines that could act with the same strength and quickness no matter which way the body pointed.

Innovative 20-Legged Argus Robot Rolls Without a Compass. Engineers at Duke University built a family of robots around one steady goal. They wanted machines that could act with the same strength and quickness no matter which way the body pointed. The clearest working example carries twenty legs that reach outward from a central core. Each leg shortens or lengthens through a cable-driven mechanism. The legs sit in a pattern based on a twelve-sided geometric form, so they spread evenly around the machine. White rounded caps sit at the outer ends of many legs, and small depth cameras look outward from the tips. The finished shape looks rounded and bristling, not unlike a sea urchin resting on the ground. This rather even distribution of legs makes all the difference, since the robot can change speed or direction with surprising ease in any d...