A ROBOTIC mountaineer that could one day climb cliffs on Mars and even help rescue earthquake victims has taken its first steps. The spider-like robot, called Lemur, was developed by engineers at Stanford University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, as a prototype for a fully autonomous rock climber. It can already follow a human climber up an irregular surface without any guidance from a controller. And it has a spookily human gait.
JPL is better known for its twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which have been roaming the Red Planet since January. The rovers have transmitted…
