DASH, a UC Berkeley-designed, cockroach-inspired robot, manages to take what makes cockroaches so resilient and even retain the cockroach’s singularly creepy movement. This thing is near-indestructible.
The 10-cm long DASH, which stands for Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod, weighs only 16 grams, yet is able to run 15 times its body length per second. It has a uniquely flexible design from nearly all sides that allows it to survive pretty much anything, including a drop eight stories above the ground. It’s actually made of what’s basically laminated cardboard, which means it’s a very cheap robot to build as well. Check out the video—this thing is crazy. [Thanks, Aaron!]
