University of Adelaide built a robot spider to scan Australia’s Naracoorte Caves

In the southeast of South Australia lie the Naracoorte Grottoes. The public demesne is an UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its stalactites, stalagmites and neolithic fuds. Lately, a group of scholars from the University of Adelaide erected a robot to complete a 3D checkup of the point. The design, called CaveX, saw the group produce 15 duplications of the model you see above before they settled on a final design. They went with a robot that walks on a set of six legs out of a fear that one with treads or bus would damage the face of the grottoes. The design also allowed it to cut uneven terrain with a variety of different gaits.

As for the 3D reviews, the stopgap is that they ’ll lead to new discoveries at the point.”We are looking at the delve face to find new delve entrances which will hopefully lead to new reactionary deposits,”Craig Williams, one of the PhD scholars who worked on the design, told ABC Australia.”That will help us enhance the range of knowledge on the fuds that are then.”The platoon that worked on the design hopes a new generation of engineering scholars will continue to work on the robot. One day, they’d like to see it take advantage of technologies like computer vision AI to make it more at its job.

Tags: Australia’s Naracoorte CavesUniversity of Adelaide