How Penn’s robots came to life: this video traces the ’80s-era robots that inspired them

What inspired the quadrotor, the Penn-built robot that can fly? Or the X-Rhex, another Penn-built robot that can jump and climb?

Find out in “Birth of the Robots,” a film by Kurtis Sensenig that traces the stories behind Penn’s robots from the old-school, ’80s robots that acted as a jumping off point for Penn professors to the insects and animals whose movements the robots try to mimic.

Sensenig made the video for Penn’s Y-Prize, a competition that challenges the public and Penn students to think of applications for Penn’s robots.