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."
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!
It's much to early to tell how this will help us build better boats or water based technologies. If we already knew how to apply the technology, we wouldn't be researching to understand the science of what makes it work.
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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.
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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.