Psikharpax Will Steal Your Crumbs
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 8 of June , 2009 at 7:22 am
Rather than develop a robot that’s programmed to solve problems like a human, researchers at the AnimatLab in France are starting with a much simpler (and some might say more effective) problem solver: a rat. Psikharpax (I have no clue how to pronounce that, so don’t even ask) is a robot that not only looks like a rat, but is designed to operate using nearly all of the same sensory organs as a rat, including a set of sensitive whiskers. The software that controls the roborat is also designed to mimic real rats, relying on simple sensor inputs to dynamically build mental maps of complex environments.
So far, Psikharpax has eyes, ears, 32 whiskers per side, and (in a minor departure from its biological counterpart) battery powered wheels. A nose is in the works, and eventually Psikharpax will be able to sit up and grasp things with a set of front paws. At 50 centimeters long, Psikharpax will ultimately be fully autonomous, able to explore new environments and use learning behaviors to develop foraging techniques. And in case you were wondering (I know I was), “Psikharpax” was the King of the rats in the Batrachomyomachy, a parody of the Iliad written in Greek verses and (falsely) attributed to Homer. The name means “crumb robber”.
Crumbs, nothing. Robotic black plague, here we come.
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Category: Biorobotics, Research
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