The Future Robotics Technology Centre in Japan has unveiled the latest version of its future vehicle, the Halluc IIx.
Designed by Shunji Yamanaka, it is the second model of the Hallucigenia project. It looks a little like a robot cockroach with eight wheeled legs driven by 56 motors. It can adapt to its environment by changing its mode of travel.
The simplest mode is the vehicle mode where it rides on its wheels along flat surfaces. It can cope with bumps and steps in the surfaces by raising and lowering its legs in sequence to seamlessly bypass the obstacle.
If the surface isn’t conducive to rolling, it can switch to insect mode, where it rotates its ankle joint so it stands on a hard foot rather than the wheel and the scuttles or stomps along on its feet.
The third mode is called animal mode where it aligns its wheel/foot to the horizontal so it can crawl along the ground. In all three modes, it can move forwards, backwards, sideways or any direction in between.
Yamanaka sees the project as an experiment into how cars might move in the future.
The Future Robotics Technology Centre (fuRo) is part of the Chiba Institute of Technology, just east of Tokyo. Robots developed at the centre were used to go into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, take pictures and measure radiation doses.
The Halluc IIX in (l-r) vehicle mode, insect mode and animal mode. Image: fuRo.