Help crowdfund this car-juggling giant robot today!
Kickstarter project will help build a smaller, cannonball-chucking prototype of the 70-foot BugJuggler
It’s not often we see a robot, even a concept, as cool as the BugJuggler.
Seemingly inspired by the robots from Pacific Rim or Real Steel, it’s a 70 foot-tall giant capable of picking up, tossing and catching cars with its hydraulic arms. A “pilot” climbs a ladder into the BugJuggler’s head and controls its arms through motion-sensing controls. Essentially, when the pilot moves, the robot tries to match his or her movements.
Sadly, BugJuggler’s Berkeley, California-based inventors are some way from making the full-size robot, but with the help of Kickstarter they’re hoping to build a human-sized prototype arm capable of juggling objects up to 114kg in mass. We’re talking cannonballs rather than Volkswagen Beetles – but that’s still pretty impressive.
If they hit the US$50,000 (£30,000) funding target they hope to construct the steel arm, controlled by high-speed servos and powered by hydraulics, by January 2015. The human operator will wear a sensor-packed sleeve and glove with haptic feedback, allowing him or her to feel a proportional force when the robot arm is lifting a weight.
If BugJuggler’s creators gain over US$70,000, they say they’ll build two robot arms – and that means they’ll be able to actually juggle with cannonballs. Now that we want to see.
You can pledge money towards BugJuggler’s campaign at its Kickstarter page.
Sam Kieldsen
Contributor