All over the world, engineers are creating robots, inspired by the plasticity and capabilities of insects, so now there are a huge number of all kinds of robots, butterflies and caterpillars that are pretty good at crawling, walking, jumping and even flying. At Harvard, they went further and created arachnid robots from ordinary cocktail tubes. As it turned out, they are not only great for sucking soft drinks out of glasses, but also help engineers outright if they need to create cheap but practical and flexible joints for their new robots.
To make a joint for a robot, you simply cut the tube, bend it along the notch and attach it with a piece of rubber hose. Then, with the aid of a small pneumomechanism, air is injected into the tube, and it straightens. If it is pumped out from there, it bends.
Robots are excellent. They can run on any surface with a complex terrain, they do not weigh anything, and thanks to their flexible design they can get into even hard-to-reach places or jump higher.
The developers have already tested robots with two, three and six limbs. To perform serious tasks, spiders from pipes are not suitable, but the idea is interesting in any case.
