NASA likes to pack light for extraterrestrial visits, so it has been developing a tensegrity rover — a rod-based robot that uses cable tension to absorb blows and roll around, rather than a bulky chassis. Thanks to the agencys demo for IEEE Spectrum, we now know what a prototype of the explorer, Super Ball Bot, looks like in action. While its not very graceful with only some of its motors working, the vehicle has little trouble getting across a room by squishing itself.
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