May the 4th Be with You!

May 4th is Star Wars day and there are lots of cool robots in the scifi universe. What's the real world science behind them?

Let's start with R2-D2 and C-3P0, the original robot pair. Check out the Science Robotics article on what makes R2-D2 a May 4th is Star Wars day and there are lots of cool robots in the scifi universegood astromech for real-world robots. And you might want to watch Akira Kurosawa's 1958 classic samurai film The Hidden Fortress, about two peasants, one tall and skinny, the other short, constantly nagging each other as they help the mysterious bandit spirit the headstrong princess through enemy lines to re-establish her clan. Yes, Lucas admits The Hidden Fortress was an inspiration for Star Wars.

How can you not love BB-8? But as this Science Robotics article points out, the science of wheeled locomotion says BB-8 would not get far on the sandy planet of Tatooine.

While Solo: A Star Wars Story was meh, L3-37 is a great counter-example of how self-modify robots work in the real world. See the Science Robotics article here.

The Mandalorian has knocked it out of the park as a series, with the help of the overly complex (but delightful) IG-11. See more about what IG-11 tells us about robot design in this Science Robotics article. The Mandalorian also featured some real-world Boston Dynamics Spot robots wandering around- see more in this Science Robotics article.

Check out more articles in the Science Fiction/Science Fact columns at Science Robotics and

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