The Star Wars Droideka is very real and has just been invented in Japan (video)

17 Oct 2015

Researchers in Japan have created something very similar to the Star Wars Droideka, only without the blaster cannons.

Do you remember those fast-moving and menacing Droideka robots from Star Wars that could spin like a wheel and unfurl in order to hurl a devastating wall of laser fire at hard-pressed Jedi? Well someone has created something very similar, only without the blaster cannons.

Researchers in Japan have created a robot they call QRoss that can be thrown and can move around either by rolling or walking on all fours.

Development of Quadruped Walking Robot with Spherical Shell -Mechanical Design for Rotational Locomotion, by Takeshi Aoki, Satoshi Ito and Yosuke Sei from the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan, was presented at IROS 2015 in Hamburg, Germany.

Unlike the hulking Droideka, the QRoss is quite a small little thing, probably the size of a hedgehog, that can be thrown or rolled and will automatically find its feet.

Do you remember these guys from Star Wars?

Well this is QRoss, and he’s a lot less menacing!

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John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

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