This robot was created by students at the California College of the Arts with the goal of building an autonomous robot capable of repairing and maintaining damaged landscapes. This robot, dubbed Terra Spider, can be dropped into hazardous environments to do just that– repair and maintain damaged landscapes.
The process begins with a quadcopter scanning the site and then deploying the Terra Spider in the appropriate spots. Once the Terra Spider is on the loose, it can use sensors to determine toxic areas and go to work cleaning up the waste or repairing damaged areas.
The body of the spider is primarily constructed out of acrylic components. The team also 3D printed parts for the robot like a drill holder, gear track, and extruder head. Inside, you’ll find an Arduino microcontroller along with XBee. The XBee allows the robot to be controlled remotely and relay it’s sensor data back to a base station.
If you’re not fond of spiders, look away now! Otherwise, check out the video below to see it in action: