Researchers Made the First Walking Robot That Can Navigate Without GPS

When designing robots, researchers have long turned to the natural world for inspiration, from robots that can leap and bound like dogs to aquatic robots that can swim like squids. And by turning their attention to the tiny picnic crashers on the ground, a team of French researchers may have stumbled on a discovery that could alter the landscape of exploratory robotics. Engineers from the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Institute of Movement Sciences announced today that they've successfully built a robot that autonomously navigates without GPS. Not with magic, but with properties gleaned from a certain unwelcome picnic guest. Their findings were published in the journal Science Robotics.