Norwegian Engineer Creates The Morph Ball Spider Robot Of My Dreams


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Robots tend to be a touchy subject for me. I am constantly terrified of their potential to rule over the human race with a literal iron fist, but some robots are just too charming and awesome for me to hate. Take for instance the MorpHex, a spider morph ball robot.

Kåre Halvorsen, an engineer from Norway, has built one of the most fascinating robots of the year. The MorpHex is described as a morphing hexapod, but I'm more inclined to say it's a spider that's gotten ahold of the morph ball from Metroid. Check the robot out in action:

It's more than just a ball and spiderbot though as the video demonstrates. It can change its form in any number of ways to tackle a variety of situations. It can even frighten children who are just trying to turn it off. It's better to teach them young so they know not to go against their robot overlords when they grow older.

Halvorsen points out that his robot is not yet perfect. It can't roll in all directions due to the internal design being asymmetrical. Future versions will correct this so that the robot will be able to roll in any direction that it wants.

Now Halvorsen just needs to paint the MorpHex orange, and it will be the Metroid-inspired robot of my dreams.

[h/t: Wired UK]