Robot locomotion doesn’t seem very natural so far — and there’s almost an “uncanny valley” for how some robots move that make them look undead. But it won’t be long before robots are moving more fluidly. Here are just a few projects that are developing machines that can move like animals and people.

• Low-pressure air pumps can power “soft robots” that mimic the locomotion of invertebrates like starfish and squid. Watch them wiggle. See them jiggle. [url]
• The RoboBee is communicating with bees in their own “waggle dance” language. This robot bee isn’t quite fluent yet, but it can almost give directions to real bees — and it doesn’t get attacked as an intruder to the hive. [url]
• The University of Michigan’s MABEL biped robot can run a little over 6 mph — beating Toyota’s walking robot and ASIMO by a pretty good margin. MABEL will probably catch up to human marathon runners soon, but it isn’t a wireless robot yet… [url]
• To discover more interesting robotics-related content, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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