Slashdot Mirror
MIT Robot Walks On Water
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at MIT have solved the
mystery of how water striders propel themselves across water surfaces and in the
process have created a robot called Robostrider
that mimics the behavior. With cool stuff like this, it's no wonder
MIT is number one in engineering."
Can it turn that water into wine?
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Slashdot had a case of the mondays and frogot itself
"Failure is not an option, it's part of the standard package"
And yet they haven't made a robot that can walk up walls like a gecko.
It's no mystery why water spiders can walk on water. All the engineers had to do was ask these 3rd graders a question.
Actually there are several people who thing that MIT's direction in AI has gone seriously awry. Marvin Minsky (though somewhat stodgy), has pointed out that MIT's focus in robotics is no longer on figuring out how to make things that do stuff for people, but on subhuman gadgets.
So, yeah they may be number one, but in a way, they've let down the old guard of AI researchers.
Still, this is quite cool.
There are lives at stake here!
If the water's polluted enough, anyone can walk on it.
The coolest voice ever.
I think in the print edition of new scientist a couple of weeks ago. ffs catch up.
robot news is boring. please set up a robot category so I can filter it.
but dead last in babe-filled orgies!
--------
Free your mind.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/0 8/1157208&mode=thread&tid=134
... somebody will soon use the word 'overlords', and it won't really be funny.
Yes, this particular research project is very cool.
However, since it was mentioned in the original post, I will say that USN&WR's rankings are flawed, and do not necessarily reflect the quality of research taking place at a particular institution. In fact, a significant portion of their rankings are based on name recognition alone, which has nothing to do with quality of research.
--
Power to the Peaceful
easy--they just know where the rocks are...
--
Mac OS X--Unix without the assholes^Whassles.
In case the site is slow, here's a mirror to the link in the article.
> after a few beers i can float all the way home.
Yes but in everyone else' mind you'll be bumping into everything.
The unofficial
MIT is number one in engineering.
Robostrider is made out of a 7-Up can, stainless steel wire legs and an elastic band coupled to a pulley to power its middle legs.
Too much 7-Up and not enough beer being consumed for it to be a fair contest. They should increase their beer consumption to that of other colleges and level the playing field.
To know that you know what you know, and that you do not know what you do not know, that is true wisdom. --Scooby Doo
welcome our new MIT overlords. or is it water strider? What was the topic? Ooh a shiney!
*wanders away*
Can't upset the censors.
J
The only minor differences, of course, being that the MIT thing actually happened, and that no little boys had to be molested in the process.
[smartass mode off]
HALtheComputer's 5 step alchemy course for the twenty-first century
Step 1. Take a beaker full of wine.
Step 2. When no one is looking dump the beaker out and refill it with wine. (to obtain this "no one looking" state I suggest an elaborate ruse: something along the lines of, "Look, whats that over there?")
Step 3. Incorporate
Step 4. Go Public
Step 5. PROFIT !!!
P.S. If you plan on submitting this plan to a venture capitalist you could at least spell check it first. I'm far too busy to concern myself with mundane things like spelling.
Sure, MIT and Jebus have mastered the art of walking on water, but only /. can
turn back time
Over 2003 years ago? Jesus was born approximately 2003 years ago (some estimates have it at a few years short of that, even). Furthermore, his supposed "walking on water" trick took place significantly after the time he was born.
Can you run Linux on it? Or to echo a recent Ask /., can you run Mac OS X on it?
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
Could the video be any less clear than that? Sounds like a set-up, kinda reminds me of these two guys walking on the moon.
Do the editors read their own site or do they just sit around their parents' basements, whackin' off to pron all day?
I like rhetorical questions.
Robostrider? I would've called it the JesusBot, or Jebot for short.
You mean science is finally catching up to the science fiction written some 2000 years ago.
Hi there AC, glad to hear that the install went well.
About the side effects you mention, its a perfectly normal reaction - I had the same thing happen to me once... so, so long ago now.
Anyway, I digress - I'd be happy to help you try to sort out these "problems". I have some hardware of my own that I'd like to try out to see if i can't goop up the source of this rectal bleeding.
If you need any more news, just mail me at mrpresident@whitehouse.gov
Much Love!
xxx
George W. Bush, aka Seksi Bitchn1z
If it can walk on water - does it run on linux?
Holy crap! They made jeebus?!
Actually, if you RTFA, while the bot has been seen walking on water, it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated to be a religious figure among other robots. Therefore a crucifixion would at this point be premature, as it would not make the water-walking bot a martyr to solidify and justify the faith of millions of robot minions for millennia to come.
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
The actual measure of the number one school engineering is the school with the highest number of graduates as actual astronauts serving with NASA..
That record past and present is held by Purdue University...
Don't Tread on OpenSource
How does this help us built better boats or water based technologies?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Welcome our telepathic and precognitive overlords who can forsee when we are about to make a joke about
...
Wait, I can't post that, must resist the urge to
^H^H^H^H^ H^H^H^ H^H^H^H^H^H^ H^H^H^H^H^H ^H^H^H^H^ H^H^H^H^ H^H^H ^H^H^H^H^ H^H^H^H^H^ H^H^H^H^H^ H^H^H^H^H^H
Oh fine I'll post something on topic:
You too can actually learn from the Brisbane Insects and Spiders Home Page
Charles river (the river that MIT stands on) is always covered by a film of oil which is approximately one inch thick. You don't have to be a freaking rocket scientist to build a robot which walks on *that*.
I passed the Turing test.
You see, science is not about only making big breakthoughs on things in you direct field of interest. A lot of it is small discoveries, that are used down the road in ways that people didn't think of when they made the discovery.
I'm sure no one could possibly know yet. How is grinding little pieces of glass to play with light and images going to help anyone? (He writes while wearing corrective lenses.)
end of line
*sigh* unfortunately this water-walking technology only works for an insect-sized robot, right? How cool would it be if the surface tension of water was that strong for human-sized creatures!
The scale of water bugs goes from .5" to 10", its more of a function of keeping the surface area of the 'legs' in proportion with the weight and balance of the rest of the body.
-
I have this overwhelming desire to hang out with fags, do faggotly things, stick foreign objects in my anus, etc. Is this normal?
Yeah, they fixed this in the 2.6 kernel tree. Try upgrading, you'll feel much better afterwards.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
Do not walk where I am fishing.
Help fight continental drift.
Yeah, I BET they fixed the kernel... Always promises of kernel fixes and instead it's just always more damn cocksucking.
Just to save everyone the trouble, the third robot the fluids lab appears to be working on is a 3-segment swimmer.
How about a Beowulf cluster of AOL Sued For Over-Zealous Blocking?!
Oops... posted under wrong article.
I mean a Beowulf cluster of Infrared Telescopes!
I mean a Beowulf cluster of Light Bulb Replacements!
I mean a Beowulf cluster of MIT Robot that Walks On Water!
I like Beowulf clusters there cool I wanna make a Beowulf cluster out of CEREAL!, the less suitable the cereal is for networking/processing the cooler it is (eg. soggy raisin bran more cooler than shreddies)! I uh... I uh... ugh I've become a troll! Sorries.
With cool stuff like this, it's no wonder MIT is number one in engineering.
Number one compared to what?
Maybe it's because they're in bed with Microsoft that makes them so smart?
Spread the RC luvin'
On the linked page http://www-math.mit.edu/%7Edhu/Striderweb/striderw eb.html
Someone has blotted out the intimate details of the waterstriders mating ritual. Is he seriously worried about offending someone, or is he worried about hosting a porn site? Who says political correctness has gone wrong... This is just pathetic.
...small discoveries, that are used down the road in ways that people didn't think of...
Excellent point. Sex toys and porn were not on the minds of the engineers when they were developing their respective techn...
Awwr, who the hell am I trying to kid?
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
Next thing you know, thousands will flock to get a glimpse of the holy robot.
smash.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Robostrider is made out of a 7-Up can, stainless steel wire legs and an elastic band coupled to a pulley to power its middle legs.
I'm not sure what would bother me more to see upclose in the pool, a Vietnamese Water Strider, or a 7-Up can with legs...
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
MIT students are FAMOUS for their excesses. Drugs, Alcohol, Sex, you name it. So don't kid yourself. Most MIT kids are getting way more than their RDA of beer and liquor.
I've met MIT frat boys (yes, MIT has real frats, and real frat parties.) whose frats had "drug budgets" and an officer of Drug Procurement. I've been asked to leave frat parties because they didn't want me competing for the girls I came with.
MIT kids are not dorky and innocent. Anyone who thinks so is in for a surprise.
several people who thing that MIT's direction in AI has gone seriously awry
What does this have to do with AI?
The research reported on is primarily about fluid dynamics. Robostrider is a catchy thing they've created to bring attention to the important findings. In fact, seeing as the strider is powered by a rubber band, not only does it not have anything to do with AI, it has nothing to do with robotics either.
This doesn't mean it's not wicked cool.
For more cool (without downloading a video), check out david hu's beautiful strider pics.
My theory that Jesus was really a robot sent from the future finally has some evidence to back it up!
I, for one, welcome our new water walking overlords!
Everywhere else it's known as RoboAragorn.
This sig contains a manual self-destruct. Kindly please put your foot through your monitor in 8 seconds.
All you would need to do is teach it to hop from tire to rat corpse.
Is there any reason for a NYC Triathlon when the swim is cancelled EVERY BLOODY YEAR? They haven't been able to swim in the Hudson for three years, just MOVE THE BLOODY RACE YOU WANKERS!
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
"With cool stuff like this, it's no wonder MIT is number one in engineering."
... three letter acronyms ... I can't do that Dave ...
Am I the only one that got a major AOL vibe there? Too many
Damn, I love topics like this!
Actual people giving real comments on a geek topic. THIS is why I signed up here in the first place.
SCO posts are okay during lunch and from 2am-bedtime, but stuff like this is why I come here the other 22 hours a day.
Didn't they post this story about 2 weeks ago?
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
Researchers at MIT have solved the mystery of how teenage boys satisfy themselves several times daily and in the process have created a robot called Robostroker that mimics the behavior.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I thought you were going to say "yes, but can it run linux?"...
I can count more unemployed MIT grads in today's economy than hair on my head. No, I am not bald.
It's articles like this pointing MIT #1 that forces so many employers to fear hiring these engineers nowadays. They are so smart that if they innovate something... they are considered a waste.
Perhaps the atom is infinitely divisible. A problem better left to theorectical speculation than experimentation.
Sorry, I forgot that the robot must be tempted by Microsoft in the desert for 40 days and proclaim that "linux will inherit the desktop" before they crucify him.
1. Create Beowolf cluster of Robostriders
2. ???
3. Congratulations. Your posts are nothing but a Slashdot gimmick.
For everyone who's curious, here's the definition of "cocksucker."
+5 Informative plz kthx
[Cut to: Lodgatorium Comfort Dome Inn: Ballroom B. The Jewbots dance around the bot-mitvah bot and Fry gets some food from the buffet.]
Fry: So what's the deal? You guys don't believe in Robot Jesus?
Robot #2: We believe he was built and that he was a very well programmed robot but he wasn't our Messiah.
Free as in mason.
This "1,2,3" joke doesn't make sense!
Oh wait I get it! #3 is ironic.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords!
"Researchers at MIT have solved the mystery of how water striders propel themselves across water surfaces..."
Umm, I learned this in 6th grade. It's a simple matter of surface tension and surface area. This was the same day I learned about the meniscus formed when you fill a glass to the brim with water.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
While we're at it, let's also thank religion for such other positive world contributions as 9/11, the Holocaust, the Crusades, Oklahoma City, etc. Sorry, bub, but while religion says that the moon hangs "in the firmament", science has actually put people on it. Here's hoping you remain consistent and non-hypocritical; the next time you get sick I suppose you will pray for better health instead of visiting that heathen doctor with his devil-science medicine.
When Rutherford split the atom, he said that the amount of energy that you'd get out of it would be so little, that it wouldn't be worth it. Plus I don't think the idea of X-ray machines popped into his head straight after he split it either.
Both X-rays and nuclear energy came after, by differnt people. At the time the atom was split, it probably didn't mean much to anyone, there were no immediate benifits, some people probably saw it as pointless research.
I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords!
.. free software's way ahead.
Richard Stallman did that ages ago...
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
I was going to post an entry about "Jesus feet," big blocks of Styrofoam you can use to walk on water, but I can't find them on the Web. All the references to "Jesus feet" on Google seem to have some sort of religious slant to them.
Someone you trust is one of us.
You can overclock the little fucker to account for lesser surface tension and it'll walk across a vodka martini.
grammar-lesson free since 1999. (rescinded - 2005)
But will it run on Linux!?
-Jason
MIT still Rules. I'd like to have an SUV sized one please to replace the aging swamp buggy here in the Everglades. Make the walking pads gator proof and the cabin skeeter proof. I'd like one in Rustoleum Primer and with a gun rack in the back of the cabin,
Too lazy to create a sig...
"Chan designed and built a mechanical water strider. Robostrider is made out of a 7-Up can, stainless steel wire legs and an elastic band coupled to a pulley to power its middle legs."
;)
It's amazing the parts they get to work with at these prestigous, expensive, high-tech universities!
A distinctive mark, characteristic, or sound indicating identity
With this and the stair climbing robot mentioned on Slashdot a while back there, if the Daleks get their hands on the technology nowhere will be safe from them. Stairs, islands, there will be no escape. We're well and truly up the creek.
* Playah Robot
This automaton goes out to the clubs and picks up women and brings them back to your place. The Playah Robot never complains about getting stuck with the fat chick.
* Voicemail Robot
This robot will save you from wasting time in voicemail hell with your local utility company, diligently pressing 1 for English, 7 for other, 3 for other, and 0 to speak to a human, and after an hour and a half will notify you that a human has answered the phone and is ready to speak to you.
* Alibi Robot
This robot corroborates your story to your girlfriend that you were busy studying last Saturday night.
* Beer Run Robot
With alternate "Mountain Dew" plugin available.
With cool stuff like this, it's no wonder MIT is number one in engineering.
Now that sounds awfully familiar... So Easy To Use, No Wonder It's Number One
Jesus was...
a ROBOT!
(and he built my hotrod)
This is the country where they can't even engineer cars to go round corners, so being number one isn't much of a challenge ;-/.
oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
believe it or not, but robostrider was brian chan's undergrad thesis. he is now working on robosnail, and was recently featured on cnn. it now looks like they took the article down, but his personal website with all that stuff is here.his personal research info, not linked off his main page, is here.
oh yeah, he was my roommate when he was working on the robostrider. brian is fascinated by insects and such. we had a foot long 3/4" diameter millipede as a pet. one day it got loose.
he also forges traditional japanese swords. one day he came back from doing poorly on a test, and embedded it it 2 feet in the wall. luckily, no one was on the other side at the time.
And yet they haven't made a robot that can walk up walls like a gecko.
No, MIT haven't made a wall-walking gecko-robot yet, but Berkeley have, and so have DARPA.
I, for one, eagerly await our new robot deities. As long as they don't short out.
What next?
Yup, those smart guys at MIT! Just discovered SURFACE TENSION! Amazing, simply amazing! Why, the boneheads at all the other schools must be beating their heads on the wall in envy!
That's exactly what someone was thinking when the multi angle feature of DVD was designed.
"Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
Researchers at MIT have solved the mystery of how water striders propel themselves across water surfaces I have an old Biology book (1994) that explains why water striders are able to stay afloat on top of the water (due to the interaction amoungst water molecules - van der Walls forces) as well as how they can move along the surface. I think the author should have been a little more careful in his wording of this article.
A Canadian ranking. Are there any that pit the two countries universities against each other?
"Fast, Cheap, Good. Pick two."
...If that's the case and not meant as a joke, then this PC business is getting out of hand!!
g .j pg ..on the page of water strider pics...
I'm referring to:
http://www-math.mit.edu/%7Edhu/Striderweb/matin
but still, to give such a high honor to such a useless invention is silly.
PS: How is splitting an atom going to help anyone? I don't know, maybe has something to do with nuclear power.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
And the nuber of the Beast was 01010101
Yet, the US News & World Report ranking of colleges shows statistics in which "minorities" comprise more than 50% of the student population.
It seems to me, a group is not a "minority" if it constitutes 98-99% of the population at an institution (especially in the case of the historically black colleges).
I also enjoyed the page listing the schools with 100% acceptance rates. Woohoo! Just sign and enter!
There's 2 or 3 earlier comments saying "its so simple"!
Remember, it's not the fact they can "float" due to surface tension..
ITS HOW THEY FRICKEN MOVE!!!
(oh, and I "learned this" in 3rd grade. So ha.)
"The most looniest, zaniest, spontaneous, sporadic Impulsive thinker, compulsive drinker, addict"
Professor Bush?! Sit it is too early to stumble across those two words together.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.