Robot kangeroo – are we watching a military mechanical marcupial?

Here on GadgetyNews you’ve seen robots that wander around art galleries at night, fly ahead to warn you of what’s on the road beyond, become your buddy, and those that have been developed for military use – such as Big and Little Dog and the awesome Atlas killer bot.

The latest robotic animal I have come across on the interwebs is this bouncy bionic kangeroo droid from Festo.

It’s no doubt very clever as the robot really nails the biological motion of the kangaroo. The jumps and landings are stable, and, like a living kangaroo, the robot recovers kinetic energy from each jump to store and use in the next hop.

Perhaps even more impressive is that the BionicKangaroo doesn’t just minimally replicate the physics of a kangaroo’s jump but it’s movements seem completely ‘natural’.

Reading between the lines it seems that Festo didn’t have any particular goal in making the BionicKangaroo other than doing research into pneumatic and electrical systems, which makes the whole thing even better… or are they just waiting for DAPRPA to make an offer?

Check out the Kangabot in the video below.

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