By Evan Ackerman

For the last three years, we’ve been watching as the hexapods created by Antoine Cully and Jean-Baptiste Mouret have been getting increasingly difficult to put out of action. Using an exceptionally clever algorithm, the robots have demonstrated that they can shrug off absurd amounts of damage, adapting within minutes to recover their mobility even if you chop a third of their legs off.

Today, this research has made the cover of Nature, which is a Very Big Deal (at least if you’re a scholar), and it brings along with it some updates and even more potential for the future. ….[Read more]