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Custom-designed legs help robots speed over sand

Six-legged machine runs across grainy surfaces

By Meghan Rosen

- More than 2 years ago

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A tricked-out robot can scurry quickly over pebbly surfaces using custom-made legs.

A LEG UP A hexapod robot rests in a bed of granular material. The robot uses custom-designed legs to move quickly over pebbly surfaces. Courtesy of Chen Li, Tingnan Zhang, Daniel Goldman

A commercially available, build-it-yourself toy robot called the RoboXplorer was the starting point for physicists led by Daniel Goldman of Georgia Tech.