One of the great things about living in the 21st century is seeing all the various crazy robots that keep coming along: ones like Boston Dynamics’ SandFlea and Cheetah that can leap 30ft in the air and gallop at 18 mph, respectively. Then there’s the 3D printed swimming robot and ASIMO’s continued evolution. All of it sounding like the clink-clank of science fiction becoming fact.Add to this ever-growing list a robotic Jesus that can not only walk, but jump on water too. This miracle worker was built by scientists from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China. It has legs built from a porous, water-repellent nickel foam, and is a redesign of their water-walking robot which they released last year. Obviously not content with just having the robot walk on liquid, it can now leap 5.5 inches in the air and nearly 14 inches in length while travelling at 3.6mph.So why build such a thing? Well, it can certainly be used for spying, but maybe all these robots are really being built for some kind of secret gladiatorial battle with each other that scientists are readying themselves for. Like Robot Wars but for government budgets rather than hobbyists.Check out the video below to see it in action.
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[via IEEE Spectrum]@stewart23rd