Tarzan Robot Swings on Cables to Monitor Crops in the Field
A two-armed robot named Tarzan, swinging along elevated cables, could allow farmers to monitor fields continuously at lower cost while avoiding interference with plants.
“Swinging – or brachiation – is an energy-efficient way to travel because gravity is doing most of the work,” said Ai-Ping Hu, a senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). The lightweight robot has aluminum arms and 3D-printed hands with sensors. The eight-pound robot swings back and forth with one hand on the cable, gaining momentum until its second hand detects the cable overhead and grips it. This swinging motion replicates a gibbon’s movement along a tree limb or vine. (more…)