Now our brains are all riddled with fear of smartphone batteries, and panic begins to set in when power drops below 50%. One of the more bizarre ways to keep this tension at bay has a team of researchers developed a new smartphone business with a set of small robotic legs that allow a phone crawl to a wireless charging pad if it is set on your desktop.
Robotic researchers of the Biorobotics Laboratory at Seoul National University an existing crawling robot adapted to the CaseCrawler. Like the battery cases of companies like Mophie, the CaseCrawler adds a bit of bulk to your smartphone – about 16 millimeters on the end that houses the electric motor of the prototype.
If ever put into production, the case could be perfectly streamlined and further miniaturized, but 16 millimeters is still impressive, considering the CaseCrawler has a set of retractable legs with a one-way bent knee, so that when they move in one direction, they press against the ground and propel the robot forward . WWhen they move in the opposite direction, they collapse and act passively so as not to restrict the forward movement of the bone. The case can carry a weight of as much as 300 grams, which is 13 times its own weight, and more than enough to conquer the average smartphone, who dares less than 200 grams.
CaseCrawler’s prototype does not seem to have its own intelligence or ability to control; it scampers just forward in one direction. Thowever, adheres to its clever leg design it is not hindered by minor obstacles in its path, which it can just creep through. Finally, the smartphone it carries could provide all the smarts and sensors it needs to find its way intelligently and navigate an area like an office without scampering from the edge. Automatically finding a charger to top up the battery is one application, but imagine the next time you lost your smartphone, you could just call it a puppy and it would come back to haunt you. That’s a future where we all like to sign up, even if you’re the kind who hate putting her phone in a case.
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