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Like A Cat, New Robot Lands On Its Feet
eckenheimer writes "Students at the Physics Department at Drury University have developed a robot that uses motions and contortions of its body
to orient itself in zero gravity. According to the project site, 'If you've ever seen a cat land on its feet after falling while upside down then you've seen the idea behind our project.' The effort is a proposal for the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program."
Now that's using "motions and contortions".
Sigs cause cancer.
...to stick on its back and we'll have an antigravity engine.
I see no completed robot, no performance data or even a simulation of how it will perform in the real world. Just a REAAALLY bad web site (No page navigation? Come on!) and some digital photos of these kids and their drawings. The dates in the pages and some photos are from fall of 2003. If these were college seniors (as it says in the "meet the team" section) at the time they have already graduated by now, and abandoned these pages.
How is this newsworthy?
They don't land on their feet. In fact they don't even crawl out of the crater they made on impact.
- Your stupidity got you into this mess, why can't it get you out? -Will Rogers
Will it come with a scratching post and shit all over in the house when your gone?
Just in time for Catwoman! Now she can have a true nemesis to do battle against!! (Robocat)
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Can we apply some kind of techno-butter to one side to see if the robot can stay in a constant state of airborne suspension?
crazy dynamite monkey
Thats where I want to send my kid for some zero grav training...then they can save the word for us....
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
This was explained to me in my physics for engineers class...
Cats reposition themselves to land on their feet because they can sense the change in velocity (dv/dt = acceleration). My professor stated this only works for small height values (less than 20 ft), otherwise, the acceleration due to gravity might result in an unpleasant aftermath.
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
But their project is about " a robot that uses motions and contortions of its body to orient itself in zero gravity" but they describe it using a situation caused by gravity "If you've ever seen a cat land on its feet after falling while upside down then you've seen the idea behind our project."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Just make the feet of the robot really, really heavy. Heavier than the rest of its body, then it will always land on its feet!
So if you put butter on the other side of the robot, will it hover?
I mean, it works for my cat...
I can just imagine the papers you would have to fill out
Experiment: "Drop cats repeatedly, observe results for use in robotics..."
See how well PETA would love that one!
Just attach a printed list of all the Internet Explorer security holes in the past few months to any existing robot's feet, and the resulting weight should be enough to reproduce this cat-like ability.
# wrote sig.txt, 23 lines, 31337 chars
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said "if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door".
If it's for zero grav, and not acctualy for landing on its feet, then wouldn't "air jets", ie pressure streams generated from compressed air, and a gyro or two be much more simple to generate?
Karma: 2.71828182846 (Mostly due to small, fun pills)
If my cat gets dopped up on nip, he'll roll of the table and land on his back. And I'm talkin 2.5-3 foot fall.
When do they come out with a robot emulating some really interesting and usefull real-life function, like being in heat?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
But does it have the strength of 5 gorillas?
That sounds like a fun project to work on. I can think of all sorts of uses for something like this. We can ensure that all olympic divers enter the water perfectly perpendicular to the surface. likewise gymnasts doing the vault will always land on their feet. Throwing spirals with a football could be automagic. Ok...nothing lifechanging there...but I'm sure someone will think of something.
Better than Flickr - Manage, Share, Archive
If they could be trained to sort tiny screws in space, we could ditch the robots completely and go with a cheaper program.
Of course the high spin and acceleration I give them may have something to do with it. *shrugs*
Come on, people! "Untitled Document"? Way to impress.
Oh, give them a break. There going to upgrade soon to "Untitled Document 1".
Yeah, have to agree. My little hole-in-the-web will never win any awards but even my pages are layed out much more nicely.
I think the two biggest gripes were the idea and theory pages (both equally sparse) and the team list where you are only given emails. Apparently they can take goofy picures of the team pointing to their 'brilliant' ideas but can't add a picture to each contact.
And no, I'm not giving out my URL for you to decide if my site is fugly or not. I know it is. Especially considering it was all written in Notepad using HTML from who-knows-how-long-ago. I'm just now getting around to using CSS.
...if the robot can survive terminal velocity falls like cats. Cats falling from very high heights (i.e. skyscrapers) tend to survive the fall better than those falling from lower elevations.
Woowee! First we start with Newton's equations and... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ As to what the hell that had to do with cats, feet, and landing... I'll have HALF of what the original poster took!
IANAL, but I've seen actors play them on TV
Dogs always get the shaft. "9 Lives" - Cats, "Land on their feet" - Cats, "Catwoman" - Cats.
Dogs are so much more fun then cats, they deserve some respect damnit.
GroupShares Inc.
-------
artlu.net
Why would a robot (or human for that matter) designed for zero g require feet? Go back to the drawing board... replace those feet with a couple more arms.
He was confident that the first prototype would convince the public once it has been reassembled again.
Regards, Martin
The cat can orient itself correctly due to changes in rotation without changing its total angular momentum. Angular momentum is a quantity that must be conserved -- if it drops off a ledge with zero angular momentum, it has to land with zero angular momentum. However, by rotating a part of its body in one direction, it can twist another part to line up with the "ground," allowing it to land on all four paws. Thus the net angular momentum of the system has remained zero, but it has repositioned itself.
It would appear that this posting fits in with a robot's ability to manage its own body. I guess other components are intelligence, being able to sense the environment, being self-sufficient, and so forth.
Does anybody have any good thoughts on how everything is fitting together, and how far we are, in total, from a robot that can be truly useful, say, as a human companion, or for other purposes?
Because cats always land on their feet and toast always lands buttered side down, you can construct a perpetual motion machine by simply strapping a slice of buttered toast to a cat's back. When the cat is dropped it will remain suspended and revolve indefinitely due to the opposing forces.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
In grad school one of my physics professors wrote a paper on orienting onself in zero g with no net angular momentum. One student was just convinced it was impossible. Soon thereafter we were visted by Story Musgrave (one of astronauts who fixed Hubble) and the professor told him of the paper. Story immediately sat down on a swivel chair and demonstrated the motion necessary to turn in zero g without grabbing on to anything. It's interesting how a concept that caused some interesting debates among the students suddenly became obvious when it was directly demonstrated.
I am sure that the ability to balance and rotate could be quite useful in a female companion...
He has a great contender for "Robot Wars".
My rights don't need management.
Just curious... how does something "fall" in zero g? Doesn't falling imply gravity?
What would a cat do in Zero G? Would it continously try to adjust itself.
Now THAT would be funny to see.
Cats in spce... the next fontier.
Mark
thsi roebit lands on teh poot~`
Like A Cat, New Robot Lands On Its Feet
Now they will finally be ble to create a perpetual motion machine, which not only works, but is environmentally and feline friendly as well.
PETA had this to say:
The article describes how the cat manages to turn by rotating parts of its body without actually pushing against anything, or breaking any laws of physics. I think NASA would be very interested in this because it would mean a robot in a 0-g environment could alter its rotation without having to resort to firing chemical or compressed gas engines. Which is pretty cool. Has anything else like this been attempted?
I'll admit, though, that my initial thought was that the robot being in a situation where there is no clearly defined up or down, would do nothing apart from declare itself to be the right way up already. This may explain why NASA hasn't invited me to help out on any missions lately.
filler to beat the lameness filter
lameness filter sucks because it is so theh such ing asnd akjdsnfadksf
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall; 99 dead duelists of Dios. Take one's ring, pass it around...." Just had to say, this is easily the funniest thing I've seen all week. (It helps that I just finished watching the whole series again a few days ago.)
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
do the math you twit. Perpetual motion is still impossible because toast doesnt care what side it lands on when it's already got fur all over it.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
They get one step closer to a humane perpetual motion machine and they're wasting this research on ZERO-G ORIENTATION?
...sheesh... that girl is minging.
sad robot making broken music
Do you often claim other's work as your own?
you stole from: new scientist
your comment is a verbatim rip off of the original post by Catherine , Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent,UK
you're not.
...they should add the technology to this robot?
It's not supposed to land.... the point is just to prove that you can control your angular orientation.
The darkness... controls the music. The music... controls the soul.
As an individual who has participated in the RGSFOP program, I have seen a number of novel experiments, but this particular experiment is a retread that has been done many, many times. Last March, for example, Washington-St. Louis did a very interesting experiment involving zero-gravity orientation of a space vehicle. The typical RGSFOP experiment fails, however, although my University did experience a success this year.
A list of active RGSFOP teams
I see some physics equations, a couple incomprehensible "crude sketches" and a battery pack. Where's the pictures of the actual project, let alone video of it in action?
I've seen it. I might have had a little something to do with it. They sure are twisty little b@574d5, I'll tell you that.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
Even a dead robot bounces.
Sometimes seventeen/Syllables aren't enough to/Express a complete
I bring clearly dead cats to the vet. Sorry- digging a grave is whack.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Man, you'd expect a physics student to get integration right. Where are the constants in the resulting integrals?
Not so much a formal study but a fun paper to read: On the Directional Correlation of Axial Rotation in Inverted Felines and Planetary Spin: Coriolis Revisited
The author also happens to be a Computer Science professor in data networks. Quite a dry sense of humor -- his classes are a lot of fun!
Mandatory Disclaimer : yes, I'm a starving grad student of his, and yes, I'm pulling for a graduation date this decade!
Sorry, I apoligize for the subject of this post. Those responsible have been sacked!
www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights
www.fairtax.org
It's funny how far a cat can fall
...to save an expensive falling thingie, then we'll have to wait for someone to invent a freaking parachute then, won't we?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I like that the rebuttal has no scientific value but is still rated +5 Insightful. Nothing about thermodynamics, just the supposed emotions of toasted bread.
Back in my college days in Springfield, the alleged motto for Drury was "Pay your fees, get your B's!"
--
Okay, I got Linux installed. So where's the free beer everyone keeps talking about??
I, for one, welcome our new robot cat overlords.
How long before they become sentient and we need to call Will Smith and Harrison Ford to take them out?
No moving parts, works even in a vacuum.
1. Choose a Euclidean Solid
2. Place feet sticking out of each vertex
3. Drop "robot"
4. Always lands on its feet!
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Um- no. Every bone in their body breaks and their internal organs are crushed, just like a human. The "paper" you cite is an absolute crock of shit- they have TWO datapoints, and among other things, the data-fit is so poor it implies 100% survival rates above 8 stories for cats! BullSHIT! Nevermind that they consider "skyscraper" to be "under 7 stories", when most people consider a skyscraper to be at least 50 or much more.
Cats DO survive a two or three story fall(which is nowhere NEAR their terminal velocity) better than they will survive a one story fall, purely because they have plenty of time to orient themselves and extend their legs for full cushioning of the fall. If they don't have time to orient themselves, they often don't get their body fully aligned and it's a roll of the dice between bone strength and impact velocity.
Please help metamoderate.
I like that the rebuttal has no scientific value but is still rated +5 Insightful. Nothing about thermodynamics, just the supposed emotions of toasted bread.
You rejected a perfectly valid and testable hypothesis without citing any expermiental results. Who's post had no scientific value?
It must be because of the mild insult. Insults and personal attacks (even in jest) seem to be the preferred method of communication around here.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
As far as I can tell, this is basically an overly complex version of a momentum wheel...basically, a massive, low-speed flywheel. Spin it one way, the surrounding structure spins the opposite direction...stop the momentum wheel, and the entire structure stops spinning. That is, angular momentum for the entire structure is conserved.
The Hubble telescope uses momentum wheels for very precise aiming without requiring propellant and complex, failure-prone, and mirror-dirtying thrusters. These people are trying too hard...the basic idea is just a massive wheel attached to an electric motor.
since we're off-topic anyway, I think it should be pointed out that a dictionary is not currently, nor was it ever intended to be a reference for which words do not exist.
And just to let you know, my OED says the plural of virus is virus. It does not, however, make any mention of the word's most familiar medical meaning, so I suspect a more recent edition would have a different entry.
Virii is the plural of virus because it has no other meaning and people use it to mean the plural of virus.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
I am on a constant quest for the fabled +5 Troll moderation :)
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
... Bring stuff back and arround with the help of pipes and some bashing?
Didnt think so....HA
NO SIG
I like that the rebuttal has no scientific value but is still rated +5 Insightful. Nothing about thermodynamics, just the supposed emotions of toasted bread.
A joke theory cannot be rebutted by a scientific response. A joke theory can only be refuted by a better joke.
-a
Reminds me of Weird Al's movie (taken from the net):
Ola! And welcome to Raul's Wild Kingdom! Today, we're teaching poodles how to fly! Are you ready Fifi? Are psyched? Here we gooooooo.....
yipe yipe yipe yipe yipe yipe *thump*
You know, sometimes it takes 'em a leetle longer to get it right.
I've dissected a cat. It was pretty much a standard short haired cat. I think it must have been a stray alley cat, but not one of the bright ones that was smart enough to run like hell when the cat-snatchers came.
Anyway, Once you see a cat without it's skin, the reason that cats can take falls becomes apparent. the only really massive structure in a cat is the legs/shoulderblade/pectorals structure. The shoulder blades on our cat were huge and had an endless number of muscle attachments. The shoulder blades are hooked on to the back but the connections are relatively loose and sloppy and the spine is basically like a slinky. The legs on our cat had a 5+ inches of travel. If you get a chance, pick the cat up by holding it with one hand under it's ribcage. Use the other hand to work the front legs up and down to see the massive travel and check out the way all the muscles that insert into the shoulder blade take up the shock. Giving the cat a tracheotomy and watching the lungs inflate and deflate is a lot of fun too.
The hind quarters of the cat weren't really much, but it was as it was a really skinny alley cat there wasn't much weight for the back legs to handle. The above poster's postulated "enormously fat, bald, tailless" cat would probably shoot it's guts out all over the place on impact, but a normal cat might have a chance. Also a long tail might be handy for balance and steering on the way down, but I don't know.
Take A&P if you ever get a chance. It's a lot of fun. But try not to get hooked up with idiot lab partners that only enjoyed dissecting the cat's nuts. That freaked me out a bit. Also, don't wear your good shirt to a lab session.
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
Of course, since many innovations are first driven by sexual urges (e-commerce being a good example):
:)
How about a contortionist sex doll specifically designed for those who wish to join the "hundred-mile-high club" but who can't find a willing partner?
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
So, if you stick a panty liner (w/wings of course) to one side of it, will it fly sideways to try to get away from it? (If you haven't tried it, stick a panty liner to your cat's side. It's even funnier when you stick it to its back or belly. Just be sure that when you peel it off, you go with the grain of the fur, not counter to it!)
You know that you can do this youself at home:
:)
- Sit on a chair with a rotating base
- Move your arm around an imaginary cone out from your shoulder pointing down to your side at 45 degrees. i.e. at the top of the cone your arm is pointing out to the side horozontal to the ground and moving forward, and at the bottom of the cone your arm is vertical by your side and moving backwards.
- As you move your arm forward at the top of the cone, your arm has a high moment of inertia. To maintain zero angular momentum your body will turn the other way (towards your arm).
- As you move your arm backwards at the bottom of the cone, it is near your side and hence has a lower moment of inertia. This means that your body doesn't have to rotate back as far to maintain zero angular momentum.
- You get a net turn towards your arm.
You can make the whole thing more effective by doing it with both arms at once. Just make sure your arms are moving the right way: if one is going forward at the top, the other must be going backwards at the top, else they'll cancel rather than add. (opposite directions because your arms are on opposite sides of your body).
The best bit is to make sure everyone in your office can see you waving your arms around. When they are you what you're doing, you have to tell them with a straight face, "conserving angular momentum".
The famous "cat lands on his feet" knowlege is to be completed with "and gets damaged like most of heavy things ( > 200g ?) falling from high enough"
Why the cat lands on his feet? No need to answer. It's in the thred.
Why a cat falling from higher altitude may get less injuries, than from a lower altitude? That is the interesting bit. It seams the cat has the ability to feel whether it's falling speed is augmenting. So... until this speed is stabilised, due to air resistence, the cat is stressed 1) by the fall 2) by the constant acceleration. In that case it looks like the animal is more tensed. It's muscles are streched hard. And when the hit comes, the animal's body absorbes badly the smash.
Higher, and less injuiries. Well indeed. When the speed stabilise, the animal is less scared and, reportedly, is less stretching muscles. The hit is better absobed by it's body.But no illusion, it still feekin hurt, with usual broken bones, and blod loss. So no playing lads.
Ciao.Waaaaay too many sports references for /.