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Robotics + Car = Hallucigenia

Posted by timothy on from the street-drug dept.

News for nerds writes "I4U has news about a new transportation concept, called The Hallucigenia 01, which is a working 1/5 scale vehicle prototype, designed by Japanese design firm Leading Edge Design. PC Watch (Japanese) has photos and movies. Its 8 wheels are independent robotic arms controlled by their own satellite CPUs, interconnected to the main CPU by an internal LAN."

18 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. What ever happened to style? by Vokbain · · Score: 3, Funny

    It looks like a spider crossed with a skateboard. I wouldn't drive that.

    1. Re:What ever happened to style? by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 3, Funny

      Going by the name, it sounds like they're tarketing a group of people to whom 'most' things look like spiders crossed with other things.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
  2. What a name by OSUJoe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are they implying that the idea for the car came from a night spent tripping on acid.. or... ??

    1. Re:What a name by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · · Score: 4, Informative

      Judging from the shape of the logo, I suspect this is a reference to Hallucigenia sparsa, a reasonably famous critter they dug out of the Burgess Shale, missassigned as part of genus Canadia and was later renamed and reassigned by Simon Conway Morris. More here. Article links to a possible reconstruction which seems to be down for me.

      Paleobiology. This is a nerdy conveyance if I ever saw one.

      YLFI
      --
      One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
  3. I don't get it by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why does it need to have multiple computers networked? Doesn't this add latency that could be very dangerous at high speed? Wouldn't one computer, rather than several, with the proper sensory and control hardware be a better choice? Will I only use question marks to end sentences in this post?

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:I don't get it by Prof.+Pi · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why does it need to have multiple computers networked? Redundancy in case of failure. You see, they'll be running Windows.

    2. Re:I don't get it by razberry636 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Wouldn't one computer, rather than several, with the proper sensory and control hardware be a better choice?
      The eight independent robots can separate at will. They join together and magically work in unison to form megaHallucigenia .

      It also has a really cool glowing sword and can shoot plastic missiles.

  4. Movies? On slashdot? by Steve+'Rim'+Jobs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Soon we will hear the deep voice of Darth Vader saying "I find your lack of bandwidth disturbing..."

    Why did I think of that? I dunno, maybe it's because the car looks kinda like Darth's friggen head..

  5. Yes. Great. More to go wrong. by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One of the central tenents of all good engineering is "As complex as is needed, and NO MORE." Any more you add after that point is just "more to go wrong".

    Eight wheels, eight suspension systems, eight control systems. True, perhaps the system is designed with failure in mind, but think about owning this as a vehicle for normal use - how often will you be taking in to be fixed, because one or more wheels have broken?

    It's just like the fools who buy 4 wheel drive SUVs when what they need is a minivan - now they have what amounts to a whole extra powertrain to go wrong.

    Now, if the intent was for this to be used in unusual circumstances (forestry work, extreme rough road work or the like) I could believe this was "as complex as needed but no more".

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
    1. Re:Yes. Great. More to go wrong. by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I guess you missed the picture of it climbing stairs, staying level on hills, and changing direction 90 degrees without changing yaw. That's why it has eight wheels.

      --
      If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
    2. Re:Yes. Great. More to go wrong. by Uma+Thurman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is the modern car with the modern computer controlled internal combustion engine you're talking about. If you've looked under the hood recently, you'd see that 4 extra wheels could only add a tiny smidge to the complexity that's already there.

      --
      This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
  6. What is hallucigenia ? by andy666 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is a little animal found in the Burgess Shale of Canada. See the Stephen Jay Gould Book "Wonderful Life" for details. Here is a picture:

    http://www.karencarr.com/gallery_hallucigenia.html

  7. Re:parallel parking by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Informative

    From looking at the pictures, it seems that the wheels can rotate perpendicular to the length of the vehicle. Should make parallel parking a breeze.

    From looking at the videos, it does.

    It also goes sideways, up and down a bit, and can walk (akwardly) on them 4 at a time.
    Does all sort of crazy cool stuff.

    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

  8. This think should be able to WALK! by gacp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't know wheter this model can or not, and the wheels are toys in this model, but the think should be able to turn the wheels flat and use them as rubber feet and WALK over obstacles. I like the idea. Complicated gizmo, though.

    --
    ``L'imagination au povoir.''
  9. Mirror of Movies & Pictures by Ironix · · Score: 4, Informative


    In preparation for the sites inevitable /.ing, I have prepared a mirror of the pictures and movies.

    Mirrors:
    Pictures
    Movies

    --
    Still #1 -- Lonely Gay Geek
  10. The Hallucigenia by zr-rifle · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hallucigenia means "Dream Children" and is a name of a small worm belonging to the Burgess-Shale collection of fossils

    Researcher Simon Conway Morris had probably been working overnight a little too often, since he mistook the fossil for an eerie monster-like creature with a blob like head and spikes for legs, thus dubbing it "Hallucigenia". See the picture. Looks a little bit like Alien, doesn't it?

    It was only in 1991 that this strange little animal's anatomy was correctly interpreted as a worm, the Onychophore, with spikes on it's back and tentacles or, better, pseudopods for walking (and probably eating).

    I wonder if the pictures of this car are upside down...

    --
    Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
  11. ummm wow by britrock · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, it does a great job of navigating over the rough terrain of that flat smooth table top. Whats the point again?

  12. Actually its easier by bpb213 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The ability to travel in one direction while independantly rotating in another (and it looks like this eight legged freak can do that to an extent) is called holonomic motion. Robotics people have been doing this for years with something called an omniwheel. Basically its a wheel that contains many other smaller wheels that roll perpendicular to the axis of the big wheel.
    We can do holonomic motion with as little as three wheels (popularlized by the palm robots from carnegie melon). Of course, four wheeled models have been made.
    And I really think that it is from the four omniwheel concept that will really revolutionize travel, not this eight legged, asking to break down, feat of engineering.

    (Of course, mandatory info links:
    The wheels found on the palm robot:
    http://www.acroname.com/robotics/parts/R76 -4CM-ROL LER.html
    Cheaper, and larger, omniwheels:
    http://www.omniwheel.com/cgi-bin/plug ins/MivaEmpre sas/miva?plugins/MivaMerchants/merchant.mvc+Screen =PROD&Store_Code=KCWD&Product_Code=2052-38&Categor y_Code=Transwheel2
    The above are one of each, there are many more on both sites. Just start url hacking :) )

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    This .sig looking for creative and witty saying.