Gigglebit: Robot’s defence against dodgeballs had one major flaw …

16 Mar 2015

Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech, to help start your day on a lighter note.

There’s no stopping the ATRIAS robot developed at Oregon State University where its creators are attempting to create a robot capable of traversing un-structured environments and, seemingly, withstand a barrage of dodgeballs.

Unluckily for the bi-pedal robot, the infamous Dodgeball quote, “if you dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball”, doesn’t apply for it as ATRIAS’ co-creator, Christian Hubicki, and his partner decide to see how much punishment it can take.

Using the traditional orange dodgeballs, the ATRIAS robot jogged on the spot while being subjected to torment for a considerable amount of time, only to falter due something this journalist would like to describe as the ‘Putty Men’ school of fatal flaws, a massive stop button on its side.

Unsurprisingly, Hubicki said that the pair had “a particularly fun time making.” Where do I sign up?

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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