Brett Kennedy is a roboticist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He's worked on the Mars Exploration Rover the LEMUR-class robots, among many other projects. He has not worked on Star Wars, however, because otherwise he might have improved the droid designs.
In this video from Wired, Kennedy uses his professional knowledge to critique the designs of the most well-known droids in Star Wars. He rejects the adorable BB-8 as a poor choice of locomotion. A single rolling ball can't handle obstacles well. He's impressed with R2-D2, though, and says that it could probably be built today. What about C-3PO? Kennedy really likes Threepio's flexible spine, which is a challenge for modern robotics.
-via The Mary Sue
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Still would like to see BB8 crossing mud puddles at high speed...
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