Leaping Lizards, Batman!...



African Agama Lizard and "Tailbot"



“We showed for the first time that lizards swing their tail up or down to counteract the rotation of their body, keeping them stable,” said team leader Robert J. Full, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. “Inspiration from lizard tails will likely lead to far more agile search-and-rescue robots, as well as ones having greater capability to more rapidly detect chemical, biological or nuclear hazards.”

UC Berkeley News Center: Leaping lizards and dinosaurs inspire robot design

Global Scientific Swagger...

HANGZHOU, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The skills of China's table tennis players are virtually unmatched. However, they may soon face competition in the form of two humanoid robots that have been programmed to serve, return and score.

The robots made their debut on Sunday at east China's Zhejiang University, where they played games of table tennis with each other and with human players.

"Wu" and "Kong" are 1.6 meters tall and weigh 55 kg each. Decked out in old-fashioned Chinese jackets, they have arms, legs, eyes, ears and hair, just like their human counterparts.

English News Xinhuanet.com: Chinese scientists develop humanoid robots that can play table tennis