Birds Make Better Bipedal Bots Than Humans Do

Alexander Bardi-Spröwitz has seen more animals than the average engineer. Twelve years ago, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany was trying to design a legged robot. The problem was that biologists don't use engineering-friendly terms.

He was offered a position at the Royal Veterinary College in England by Monica Daley, a veterinary scientist. The combination of veterinary experience and hard robotics has paid off. BirdBot is a bipedal machine that may one day explore terrains such as dense forests, where wheeled or treaded robots cannot move. Their results were described in a journal.