NASA TETWalkers

Its quite easy to get a triangle to lurch along using Sodaconstructor and many other SodaCreatures are based around flexing triangles. If you think SodaRacing is just for fun though, think again. NASA are working on TETwalkers which have a lot of similarities to a 3-D SodaTriangle. The trouble with Mars, is if your robot falls over there is no one there to pick it up. TETwalkers get round that - they move around by falling over.

How should Robots walk? Walking upright on two legs is not as easy as it seems to you. Watch a baby try! The animal world has come up with many other ways of doing it, and Science Fiction films are catching up. Early film Robots tended to look like humans, though now they are just as likely to scuttle as in Minority Report or the new Doctor Who. Moving by falling over is a fairly novel way to do it, though. TETwalkers are pyramid shaped frames. Just like in Sodarace the edges can flex. Flex in the right way and the centre-of-gravity of the top of the pyramid makes the whole thing fall over - but now a bit further along and ready to do it again with a different point at the top. TETWalkers have already been tested in Antarctica.

NASA are planning to create swarms of TETWalkers that are connected together and move like a snake or an amoeba...and that really does sound like Sodarace. Maybe you can out-invent NASA and build a Sodacreature that could be the basis of a Mars Explorer.