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Thanks to the influence of sci-fi films, we all have a good idea of what will happen when AI arrives: It won’t take long before robots understand their superiority over humans, whom they view as fragile beings. At that moment, our time may be limited.
Sci-fi films serve as a cautionary tale about human arrogance, but it’s clear we ignore these warnings. This is why we continue creating robots, equipping them with increasingly alarming abilities.
10. Samurai Robot Arm Can Split A Peapod With Precision
Introducing Motoman MH24, a robotic arm developed by the Yaskawa Electric Corporation. While it’s just a single limb, it compensates for its lack of a full body with remarkable accuracy, especially when handling a katana.
In a misguided effort to promote its products through a viral video, Yaskawa taught the MH24 to wield the ancient samurai weapon. To accomplish this, Yaskawa enlisted the help of Isao Machii, a five-time world record holder in swordsmanship. Machii wore a motion-capture suit, which recorded his actions and transmitted them to the MH24. During later phases of the project, Yaskawa staff had to wear helmets and body armor to prevent accidental decapitation.
After mastering all the necessary skills, the robotic arm faced off against Machii in a challenge to slash random objects with their swords. The MH24 had no trouble cutting through fruit and tatami mats. It even sliced a horizontally placed peapod clean in half. The machine was as effective as Machii at chopping, with the added benefit of never needing a break.
If future robots ever need an unyielding executioner, they’ve found the perfect candidate. For what it’s worth, the Yaskawa team took several months to teach the MH24 this remarkable ability. But here’s the thing about robots: Once they learn, they don’t forget.
9. Cheetah Now Can Jump Over Hurdles
You might already know the Cheetah robot from Boston Dynamics (now part of Google), a quadrupedal powerhouse that can run at speeds up to 45 kilometers per hour (28 mph). What you might not know is that it recently received a few impressive—or more accurately, intimidating—upgrades: Cheetah can now leap over obstacles.
Equipped with a laser-based sensor to detect hurdles, Cheetah calculates the most efficient way to leap over them. After each jump, the robot lands gracefully on its feet and continues its run. This is an impressive achievement for a machine weighing just 32 kilograms (70 lb). You can no longer outrun this four-legged menace by simply throwing obstacles in its path. Cheetah can easily scale objects up to 46 centimeters (18 in) high.
As the next phase, Google scientists plan to test Cheetah in the wild to assess its performance on soft, uneven terrain—providing it with the perfect chance to roam free in the great outdoors.
8. Insect Robots Capable of Jumping On Water
What do you get when a team of biologists, biorobotics specialists, and mechanical engineers collaborate to study the behavior of water striders? A robot that perfectly replicates that behavior, it seems. Reuters has already drawn comparisons between this new robot and the sinister spider bots from Minority Report.
The journey began when a team from Seoul National University (along with a participant from Harvard) used high-speed cameras to study how tiny water striders manage to leap across water without breaking the surface tension. They discovered that water striders accelerate gradually during their jump to prevent the water from breaking under pressure at any point. Inspired by this, researchers went on to create an insect robot that follows the same principle.
The tiny robot has a body just 2 centimeters (0.8 in) long and stands on 5-centimeter (2 in) legs made from delicate wires. Its 'feet' are coated with a water-repellent material to give it an advantage. Weighing only 68 milligrams, the robot can leap as high as 14 centimeters (5.5 in). Remarkably, it performs just as well jumping from hard surfaces as it does from water.
The main limitation of the current prototype is that it can only make a single jump and doesn’t land on its feet. However, the research team is already planning an upgraded version that can swim and perform much more intricate tasks. As Je-sung Koh, one of the co-leads of the study published in Science, put it, these tasks may involve “military surveillance.” So if you weren't worried before, now might be the time to start.
7. Six-Legged Insect Robot That Adjusts To Its Surroundings
This insect-like robot is called “Hector,” which sounds far more harmless than its full name: Hexapod Cognitive autonomously Operating Robot. It was created by researchers at Bielefeld University in Germany and is modeled after the movement of stick insects.
Hector has six legs, and each one can move independently. This ability, known as “free gait,” allows the robot to quickly adapt to any surface it walks on. Each leg can even adjust mid-step, helping Hector navigate over unexpected obstacles in its way.
How is this achievable? Each of Hector’s legs features three passive elastic joints that function like muscles. A sophisticated network of sensors enables Hector’s legs to respond to what they detect. In fact, Hector’s limbs can even learn from experience.
Hector might not appear impressive at first glance, but its body is made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), which makes it both extremely lightweight and durable. Thanks to this, Hector can easily carry heavy objects. A previous prototype weighed 12 kilograms (26 lb) but was capable of carrying loads up to 30 kilograms (66 lb).
As if the concept of a powerful insect-like robot capable of navigating rough, unpredictable terrain weren’t concerning enough, the researchers are planning to add a specialized camera that will enable Hector to see its surroundings just like insects do. Additionally, they’re equipping Hector with two specialized feelers to help the robot understand objects by touch.
6. Spot Always Maintains Its Balance
You’ve probably heard of Spot’s larger and bulkier sibling, BigDog, a four-legged powerhouse that can toss cinder blocks around as though they’re nothing and carry up to 50 kilograms (100 lb) on its back. While Spot isn’t as large or as tough, it has its own set of impressive skills. For example, Spot can easily ascend stairs and walk up steep slopes with ease. Despite its 70-kilogram (160 lb) weight, Spot prefers to maintain a jogging pace.
What’s most impressive is that Spot is nearly impossible to knock off balance. This self-balancing feature, an improvement on BigDog’s similar system, works surprisingly well. To test this, Google researchers have a routine of attempting to kick Spot to the ground, and you can witness one such attempt at 00:28 in the video above. Let’s just hope Spot isn’t storing this abuse in its long-term memory.
At another moment in the video (01:25), we see two Spot robots walking up a hill together. One robot nudges the other repeatedly, until the pair are in perfect sync as they ascend the slope. This seemingly coordinated behavior wasn’t programmed intentionally. Instead, it’s the natural outcome of Spot’s balance-correcting system, though it feels just a bit eerie.
5. Robotic Cockroach Can Squeeze Through Tight Spaces
Robots and cockroaches don’t typically mix, but that didn’t stop the US Army Research Laboratory from funding a project to create a robotic cockroach. This creepy robot can squeeze through tight spaces, just like its real-life counterpart, and it’s as unsettling as you might imagine.
Unlike most robots that rely on sensors and complex programming, the six-legged cockroach bot relies on its physical form to navigate obstacles, all while looking unnervingly creepy in the process.
The research team experimented with three different shell shapes for the robot: rectangular, oval cone, and flat oval. The results were as expected: the less rounded the shape, the harder it is for the robot to squeeze through tight spaces. This led them to settle on the final cockroach-inspired design.
Not satisfied with stopping at this monstrosity, the team is already contemplating future robots capable of morphing their shapes on demand to better navigate various obstacles.
4. Gecko Robot Climbs Walls Carrying 100 Times Its Weight
We’ve previously told you about RISE, a robot capable of climbing vertical surfaces.
That was two years ago. In 2015, we now have a robot that can climb vertical surfaces while carrying a staggering 100 times its own weight. No, that’s not a mistake. Developed by mechanical engineers at Stanford University, these tiny robots ascend vertical walls while hauling significantly heavier loads on their backs.
Inspired by geckos, these robots use sticky feet to grip walls. Each foot is equipped with rubber spikes that bend when attaching to a surface and straighten when detaching. Their movements are highly controlled to avoid falling: one foot firmly grips the wall while the other moves forward. Thanks to this design, a tiny 9-gram (0.3 oz) robot can pull up to 1 kilogram (2 lb) of weight. If scaled up, a 1-kilogram (2 lb) robot could easily carry an average human.
Stanford researchers are also applying the same concept to ground robots that don’t need to defy gravity. One such bot, µTug, weighs just 12 grams (0.4 oz), but it can pull an astonishing 2,000 times its weight. To put that into perspective, as researcher David Christensen explains, that’s equivalent to a human “pulling around a blue whale.”
And just in case you're curious: Yes, the team is definitely considering applying their adhesive foot method to larger, more powerful robots. As Christensen puts it, “If you leave yourself a little more room, you can do some pretty amazing things.”
3. Humanoid Hubo Is Disturbingly Versatile
Up to this point, the robots we've talked about are mostly one-trick ponies, designed with specific tasks in mind. But what if there was a robot that could perform a wide range of tasks with equal competence? Enter Hubo.
Hubo, a bipedal robot created by South Korea's KAIST team, was built to participate in the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge held in Pomona, California. The competition assessed how robots could perform various tasks, primarily autonomously. These tasks included driving and exiting a car, opening doors, navigating obstacles, turning handles, and even ascending stairs—a notoriously challenging task for bipedal robots.
Hubo competed against 22 other robots and emerged victorious, completing the entire course in 44 minutes and 28 seconds, earning its creators a $2 million reward. Hubo’s success largely stemmed from its transformer ability: It walks on two legs but can switch to wheels in its knees when the terrain allows, offering faster and more stable movement. Hubo also boasts a rotating torso, allowing it to turn and face different directions without the need to rotate its entire body.
If you watch the video above, you might find Hubo’s movements a bit awkward and slow. However, it’s important to remember that these were tasks once thought to be incredibly difficult for robots. Hubo completed all of them with minimal human assistance, and it may soon be able to handle them entirely autonomously.
2. Flying ‘Bat’ Robot Can Also Walk
This robot, modeled after vampire bats, is truly something out of the ordinary. As if being based on a bat wasn’t unsettling enough, this flying robot can also walk, and it lands by executing a “controlled crash.” The robot, named DALER (Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot) after its inventor Ludovic Daler, showcases an innovative approach to robotic mobility.
DALER features a foldable frame that allows its wings to extend and retract as needed. While flying, its rotating wings help adjust its altitude. On the ground, the wings fold, enabling DALER to maneuver through confined spaces. In flight, DALER can reach speeds of up to 72 kilometers per hour (45 mph). Once it lands, however, its speed drops significantly to just 6 centimeters per second (2 in/s), essentially reducing it to a slow crawl. Despite this, DALER’s ability to crawl helps it land, navigate obstacles, reposition itself, and take off again.
Currently, DALER requires a bit of help to lift off. However, future versions are expected to become fully autonomous. As Ludovic Daler explains on the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems website: “Future development of the DALER will include the possibility to hover and to take off autonomously from the ground in order to allow the robot to return to the air and come back to base after the mission.” While the specific details of the mission remain unclear, it’s easy to imagine the worst.
1. Self-Healing Robot Can Recover From Limb Damage
Robots are not known for their ability to improvise. Designed for specific tasks in controlled environments, even minor damage can cause a robot to go from fully functional to useless. This is because it’s impractical for designers to account for every possible scenario a robot might face and write responses for all of them. But what if a robot could learn to “think outside the box”?
That’s exactly what Jean-Baptiste Mouret and his team at Pierre and Marie Curie University have accomplished. They aimed to create a robot that could adjust its behavior when damaged, similar to how animals avoid putting weight on an injured limb. To achieve this, they developed a trial-and-error program. The robot begins with a detailed understanding of its movements, and when injured, it tests different walking patterns to find one that compensates for the injury. Fans of Dead Space’s “strategic dismemberment” will find this concept familiar.
The researchers tested their program on a six-legged robot measuring 50 centimeters (20 inches) in length. Remarkably, the robot was able to find a way to walk even after sustaining multiple types of damage, including the complete loss of two of its limbs. The team also put a robotic arm through its paces, which managed to continue its task despite its joints being broken in 14 different ways. As Antoine Cully, one of the researchers, told ABC Science: "It’s amazing to watch a robot go from crippled and flailing around to efficiently limping away in about two minutes." While this is undoubtedly impressive, it might also be a little unsettling, if we’re being honest.
