Robotic Chimpanzees may be Bound for Moon [VIDEO]

Engineers at a lab in Germany drew inspiration from nature for their latest creation: a robot that moves on all fours like a chimpanzee.

Though its name gives no hint that it's modeled after a monkey, the iStruct Demonstrator accurately mimics the leg-and-knuckle walk of an ape, and even has a plastic ape-shaped head, complete with flared nostrils. The robot's heel-toe step sets it apart from other robots in its class, which tend to walk with a shuffle, unable to make contact with the ground at multiple points.

The design firm behind the robo-ape, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), says the project is an attempt to demonstrate the advantaged of actuated multi-point-contact feet.

DFKI chose a chimpanzee as the antitype for the robot and, "modeled it with the same characteristics regarding limb proportions, spinal column, center of mass, walking pattern, and range of motion as the biological antitype," according to an abstract published online.

This is not the first time robotics engineers have turned to nature for inspiration. A speedy robotic creation inspired by the movement of the housecat is one of the fastest robots around and miniaturized flying robots are modeled after buzzing insects.

But the robotic ape is in a league of its own: while most of its animal-inspired kin are tethered to a power supply, the iStruct Demonstrator is powered by an internal battery pack, allowing it a greater field of movement than some of its robotic peers. And while an inflexible metal bar constitutes a "spine" in most robots, the robo-ape has a flexible backbone, as well as the ability to adjust its center of gravity.

It's unclear exactly what use the iStruct or any future incarnations may be used for, but the project was reportedly funded by Germany's space agency and is classified by DFKI as a space robotics project, suggesting that one day the Moon or Mars might be crawling with robotic apes.