Cornell University's professor Andy Ruina, and his team, have demonstrated a walking robot that can go 40.5 miles on a single charge. After 30 hours, 49 minutes and 2 seconds the 1.3mph robot, dubbed Ranger, came to a complete stop. The goal of this test was to see how long the robot could work under non-stop conditions, very much unlike the recent Robot Marathon. The ranger was controlled by several operators switching off with a remote control.
The Ranger's control system uses 4.7 watts. Motors consumed 11.3 watts. The onboard 6 pounds of lithium-ion batteries powered the total 16 watts for almost 31 hours straight. The Cost Of Transport (COT) was far lower than most robots. Ranger came in at a COT of 0.28 according to Runia, where most other bots experience a COT of 1.5 or greater. The low COT of the Ranger is mostly due to the way it walks, by swinging appendages as far as possible. Where at the robots from the marathon have several joints to control as well as maintaining a balance. Nevertheless, 40.5 miles of transport is quite an achievement.
This Ranger has done more for charity than most people. It walked 30 laps for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life a day before the 40.5 mile walk. It is an inspiration to us all.
Eavesdropper