A robotic kangaroo that emulates actual kangaroo jumping is now being previewed at a worldwide automation company, Festo. The kangaroo isn't the only thing they are showing off. They have also just previewed a spherical, blue bottle looking bottle dispenser. The videos below speak for themselves, but Festo seems to be wanting to show off what they have created and fantasize about the future of robotics among us, whether these robots assist us or not.
The delivery drone is reportedly filled with helium and - as is apparent in the video - controlled through a host of propellors that seem to smoothly move the sphere around space, navigating with GPS and cameras. It then laps up an object with a 'tongue', stores it inside the sphere and then carries the object and deploys it when it has reached its destination.
Then we get to the robotic kangaroo the company has made. The robot jumps around with 2 motors for the hips, one motor for the tail, a high-pressure accumulator, a compressed air reservoir for keeping the neck and back in place, a sensor system and a CECC control system and a whole bunch more stored within its shell of a body. It is all explained in the video below. The more important part of the video is where a human controls the robots actions through an Internet of Things wristband that connects to the robots network and gives it commands on what it should be doing.
Festo will be showing off its new range of robots at the industry event of the year Hannover Messe. But if this is the first preview of what Festo has up their sleeve, a robopocalypse is looking more likely before the end of 2016.
