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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

ted.com - Talks Robert Full on engineering and evolution

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Insects and animals have evolved some amazing skills -- but, as Robert Full notes, many animals are actually over-engineered. The trick is to copy only what's necessary. He shows how human engineers can learn from animals' tricks.



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Robert Full studies cockroach legs and gecko feet. His research is helping build the perfect "distributed foot" for tomorrow's robots, based on evolution's ancient engineering.

Why you should listen to him:

UC Berkeley biologist Robert Full is fascinated with cockroach legs that allow them to scuttle at full speed across loose mesh and gecko feet that have billions of nano-bristles to run straight up walls. He's using his research to design the perfect robotic "distributed foot," adding spines, hairs and other parts to metal legs and creating versatile scampering machines.
He's helped create robots, such as Spinybot, which can walk up sheer glass like a gecko -- and he even helped Pixar create more realistic insect animations in the film A Bug's Life.
"Dr Full cheerfully admits that some of his real-life critters can be disgusting, but they offer valuable insights into how to conquer challenging terrain."
The Economist

Robert Full on the Web


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