Video: Yo-yoing robot

A ROBOT that can play with a yo-yo in the dark may sound as useful as a chocolate teapot, but it could be an important step towards creating highly mobile, low-cost robots.

Studying the motions involved in rhythmic activities such as playing with a yo-yo and juggling could help make robots more stable when walking, says Peter Bentley, a specialist in bioinspired computing at University College London. “The cyclic dynamics of the yo-yo may share some properties with the cyclic behaviours of limb movement,” he says. “So if we can get robots to play yo-yos more …