Robot to make 80 km trek

An eight-legged robot will set off on a desert trek of 80 kilometres - nearly 50 miles - next year to test how machines can survive on their own.

Anyone bumping into the metal and plastic device in California’s Mojave desert might be forgiven for thinking aliens had landed.

The 50-centimetre (19.7 inch) robot, modelled on a scorpion, has little in the way of brains and relies almost entirely on its reflexes to overcome problems.

Its creators at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, wanted to show that simple robots can operate better in some situations than ones with complex programs.

They spent a long time observing the behaviour of real scorpions before building the machine.

Next year the robot will scramble off on a journey across the Mojave desert, aiming for a target 40km away. Then it will have to turn round and come home on its own.

The robot has a camera and radio link, and uses infrared and ultrasound sensors to detect and avoid obstacles.

Acting on instinct like a real scorpion allows the robot to respond immediately when confronted with a potentially destabilising problem, such as a leg stumbling on a rock.

The project has been sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Military chiefs hope the ‘‘scorpion’’ technology will be useful for reconnaissance, especially in cluttered battlefield environments such as towns.

Earlier this year, the robot was put through its paces at an urban combat centre in Arizona called Desolate City.

Barbara Webb, a robot expert at Stirling University in Scotland, said the importance of reflexes to problem solving is often underestimated.

She said: ‘‘‘Figuring out’ doesn’t necessarily require logical reasoning. It can occur as much from just trying things out to see if they work.’’