Spider-bot joins NASA’s robotic zoo

Network of tiny bots could fan out over Mars
The 7-inch high spider-bot has six legs and feeler-like antennas.
By Tariq Malik
SPACE.COM

Jan. 29 — Engineer Robert Hogg’s spider sense is tingling, but he’s no superhero. His spider sense comes from an insect-like robot with a leg up on its wheeled counterparts because it walks instead of rolls. The spider-bot, developed by Hogg and his team of researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is the latest affordable addition to the agency’s robot family. Its legs step over obstacles, clamber up rocks and reach areas of interest that would normally be inaccessible to wheeled rovers that run on flatter paths.