Slashdot Mirror
Robot Walks on Water
gmletzkojr writes "Yahoo! News has a story about a robot built to walk on water, much like small insects, bugs, and of course, Jesus. The current robot is only a prototype, but more 'useful' robots are already being imagined." This puts into practice what scientists learned just last year.
So now that we got a really tiny robot that walks on water, what can we do with it ?
- Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com
When it can turn tap water into wine/beer/rum I'll buy one...
I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born - Ronald Reagan
Follow a few links and you get to here....n o/projects /waterstrider/
http://www.me.cmu.edu/faculty1/sitti/na
Still trying to figure out why this is a useful invention though...
Here, no new info, but a couple of pictures of the dye tests and the robot itself.
2000 years ago Jesus was a carpenter; now He builds robots. There is hope for geeks yet. :p
Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove.
Wait until they made one that can walk on lava, it'll be really useful for some scientific research in volcanos.
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
I think the most important part of this article and development is the fact that the pure research came up with the knowledge last year, and has quickly produced a working model. I think it's a good show of the need for pure research in all fields of science, but it ain't gonna win a nobel prize.
Since these little things rely on some form of surface tension, will a surfact tension modified such as oil or soap affect them.
Bacardi + slashdot = negative karma.
This just confirms what I've long suspected. Jesus was a robot.
It might not be immediately usefull, but anything that pushes robotics into new areas is good in my book.
We've already done walking, flying and swimming bots, so why not skimming?
The BBC link from the previous article clearly shows a robot was successfully made in 2003 -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3126299. stm
Groundbreaking new robot crucified by Romans.
Film at Eleven.
You're doing it wrong.
One day Jesus and Moses are out on the heavenly golf course. Moses hits a wicked slice, right into a water hazard. He parts the water, retrieves his ball, and hits a great shot right onto the green. Jesus tees up, and hits into the same water hazard. Jesus confidently walks out onto the water, but sinks like a rock. Moses helps him out of the water, coughing and spluttering. "What happened?" says Moses. Jesus replies, "I didn't have these damn holes in my feet last time."
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I for one welcome our new water walking robot overlords.
"Sitti and other researchers imagine that his water-skimming robot could be used on any still water. With a chemical sensor, it could monitor water supplies for contamination or other toxins; with a camera it could be a spy or an explorer; with a net or a boom, it could skim contaminants off the top of water." ... if only someone could invent some kind of, oh, I don't know... radio controlled boat.
Are you saying Jesus was a robot???
No, just his followers.
i think the problem with skimming is that it relies on very specific conditions...
...Otherwise you're risking breaking the miniscus (spag?).......in theory, it would be good as something to explore a watery area undetected (i.e. it creates very little wake) or just to travel through shallow (5mm) water, but i'd like to see a true application of said robot...
- the robot has to be VERY light
- the robot has to be very small
Would be nice to combine this with the insect-eating robot that was mentioned a few days ago.
Bye bye mosquito's!!
--Use ant to make
Develop immunity to that!
It could be positioned in a mosquito filled lake... then quite cleverly skim accross water systematically and send a sharp, high frequency signal accross the surface of the water.... i think that might just work :-)
At first I thought "Why not have one of these with a wireless transmitter, testing for PH imbalance, chlorine levels, even surface temperature, and then sending it back to some sort of auto-clronie / ph adjustment / heater system..." Then I realized, you could build the testing into the distribution system. So, anyway, what's this for again?
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
Pack it with a radar and a mini-gun. Then you can watch it frag those bugs running around on your garden fountain.
Apple built a platform for their ideas, Google built one for everyone's.
If you're ever chased by water-walking killer robots from the future, just throw some soap or detergent in the water to mess up the surface tension. They never plan for that! (This might also work for water-walking religous figures, but I wouldn't recommend it.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
just use legs that float?
a beowulf cl.... nah, better not...
When I was little I had a capsula ( http://www.discoverthis.com/capsula.html ) set that could walk on water... didn't anyone else?
Oh -- it looks like they're still being made... I guess it's time to find out my Visa's credit limit.
Peter, John, and Jesus are sailing on the Galilee. As the trio near the shore, Jesus hops from the boat and calmly walks across the water to dry ground. He turns to his apostles and calls, "Come!"
Without a moment's hesitation John jumps from the boat and strides confidently to the shore and takes up position next to Jesus. They embrace, turn and both implore Peter, "Come!" Peter cautiously steps out of the boat and after not even a step sinks to the bottom.
John asks, "Master, should we have told him where the rocks are?"
"Yahoo! News has a story about a robot built to walk on water, much like small insects, bugs, and of course, Jesus. The current robot is only a prototype, but more 'useful' robots are already being imagined."
I've never met a bug that wasn't an insect.
Hey it's nothing special. My AIBO did that last winter without any problems.
I'll really be impressed if they can also make the robot summon shiny creatures and look, act and talk exactly like Yuna from Final Fantasy X.
My own personal jesus?
2000 years ago Jesus was a carpenter
His dad was the carpenter. He was just "On top of the world."
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
The story about Jesus walking on the water results from a translation error, in the original version he was simply swimming, no miracle at all.
The page of the project is on the site of the uni. Here is the cached version :
w ww.me.cmu.edu/faculty1/sitti/nano/projects/waterst rider/+&hl=fr
http://www.google.be/search?q=cache:-PDGwjm17ycJ:
On that page they also have a video.
-
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
those would make great bath toys for geeks!
So why not just use a boat for anything this robot can do?
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18341
umm - maybe they could merge, provide pool-cleaning facilities, say.
h
Perfect sig for sale - only one careful owner
Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
soap...
Z
When they put these robot insects out on a lake to monitor shit, they will not be killed by other insects. You know why? BECAUSE ROBOTS DON'T TASTE VERY GOOD. So robots are superior than biological creatures, and they will take over the earth and suck our brains dry (because humans are still yummy). And if that wasn't bad enough, we will all later wake up in a dystopian future and be forced to hang out with keanu reeves for the rest of our lives. :(
Will code a sig generator for food
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/2 6/0141229&tid=134&tid=146&tid=126&tid= 14
I've never met a bug that wasn't an insect.
Spider. Centipede. Woodlouse. Met any of these?
IIRC, the major features of insects are having six legs and a distinct head, thorax, and abdomen. Many small insect-like creatures don't have these.
There is an order of true bugs in the insect kingdom, but that's only one of the meanings of the word, and certainly the less used.
Oh, and nits aren't bugs, either. Formally, they're the eggs of lice, not the lice themselves.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This will be a bastard to crucify.
It's called a boat.
As log as your reach out, touch faith.
Mosquito Terminator 1000 (in a tiny ultrasonic voice) "I'll be baaaaack." (Mosquitos spray it with detergent and it sinks.) "No, you won't!"
http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=god-je sus.jpg&category=Toys&date=2002-10-16
I wonder if it can walk on water.
Well blockhead. If you know anything about insects you would know that bugs are an insectoid family. For an example, North American water beetles are a class belonging to the bug family. Grasshopers on the other hand are not. You really should take a second to study before you post a comment like that on slashdot. Honestly, evryone cool in the world is going to know what a dope you are now.
I was forced off of my computer by a thug who wants to make me look bad(Retro gamer).I apoligise if "my comment" offended you.
You must be Catholic or somthing.
Sitti estimates his spartan prototype cost about $10 in materials to make.
:)
Great! So, show me how!
This just confirms what I've long suspected. Jesus was a robot.
He was a waterstrider.
they just have build this robot, because if they build one that opens the sea like moises they would have problems with greepeace
Fry: "So, what's the deal? You guys don't believe in Robot-Jesus?"
Jewish Bot: "We believe he was built and that he was a very well programmed robot, but he wasn't our messiah."
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
How about fly-eating robots? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns999 96366.
Ok, I clicked the links and read...but come one, can't there be a picture of this little thing!! I mean, it loses a little bit of collness factor when I can't see what it looks like walking on water.
Really though, will this really be that important. I am guessing that any application of a water walking robot would require relatively calm and stable water conditions. That basically limits the times and places it could be used. I mean, we already have things that can "walk on water" and can be used almost everywhere...they're called boats.
Bah. My roommate did this three years ago when he was an undergrad at MIT for his senior thesis. He designed and built it himself. You can see it here. Granted, it is entirely mechanical, but dang it's cool. He's got a video of it going across water.
Most recently he built a robotic snail that, in its current incarnation, actually goes completely upside down. Oddly enough, he calls it robosnail.
Did I mention the dude makes his own swords?
http://www.plif.com/archive/wc103.gif
If noone rtfa, then what's the slashdot effect?
I'm pretty sure that this bot would also float (appart from water walking). It wouldn't make much sense otherwise, as a small wave, detergent, etc, would sink it. Also, I am not familiar with the dynamics of walking on water, but is walking on water more efficient than plowing through it like a boat?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Where did you get this stat that they would have a mass equal to the mass of this planet? I don't think just getting rid of the predators would allow this to happen. Other problems would arise like where to get nutrients from, hell, even where to land when they got tired.
More importantly I never thought water bugs stayed on the surface by "making tiny waves." I've lived near the water (both fresh and salt) all my life and I've known that bugs walked on water by not breaking the surface tension for as long as I can remember being aware of such bugs. I believe it was explained to me using bubbles and the meniscus seen in a glass of water as visuals. Who was confused about this until 1993?
"Sitti's prototype is especially impressive considering researchers didn't really know how water skimmers actually walked on water until last year.
The bugs support themselves on water because they're not heavy enough to break the surface tension of water, like a needle that floats."
I don't get it. I have known this since I was a kid.
Do your best, hope for the best, suspect the worst.
Jesus was having a bad day in Heaven. He was concerned because more and more people of The Earth were using drugs. So he summoned his disciples to an emergency meeting. They talked and thought of ways to solve the drug-problem, but they could not figure out a way. So they decided that in order to solve the problem, they had to understand the problem. So Jesus sent his disciples back to Earth, with a mission top gather drugs from all corners of the world, so they could study them.
Days passed, and Jesus was getting nersous. Then he heard a knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Matthew"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Crack-cocaine from Los Angeles"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door, and Matthew stepped inside
Then there was another knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Peter"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Ecstacy from Amsterdam"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door and Peter stepped in.
Then there was another knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, John"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Khat from Mogadishu"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door and John stepped in
Then there was another knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Simon"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Heroin from Moscow"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door and Simon stepped in.
Then there was anothe knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Judas"
"What did you bring with you?"
"DEA motherfuckers! Hands against the wall!"
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Fry: "So, what's the deal? You guys don't believe in Robot Jesus?"
Jewish Bot: "We believe he was built and that he was a very well programmed robot, but he wasn't our messiah."
sophisticated engineering from the fyoochore! next up: AT-AT, let's make them walk- why not?
--
"pain is weakness leaving the body."The water strider project's home page can be found here.
The CM NanoRobotics home page is here.
Both have pictures of the bot and many others.
BENDER: So you guys don't believe in Robot Jesus?
RABBIBOT: We believe that he was built, and that he was a very well-programmed robot, but he was not our Messiah.
It comes from MIT and CMU, so it probably just *thinks* that it can walk on water..
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
You must be new here
Music is everybody's possession.
It's only publishers who think that people own it.
Fuck Beta
~John Lenno
Now we will also have robots proclaiming to be the second coming of Christ...
"it can in no way easily peirce the surface tension on the water's surface perhaps because it weighs so little."
I somehow have a hint that you at least have some affection to entemology due your choice of words. I know and hope everyone else knows as you seemingly do, that a "living" Water Strider will only try to peirce the water surface when it needs to lay eggs (after mating, of'course).
You are dead-on. The scientist quoted in the article is not using comparitive technology and if I was the weight of a Jesus bug then that means this robot is the size of CowboyNeal on balloon stilts. CowboyNeal, I love you as I would my brother; please lose some of that weight. I will pray for you.
Am I the only one who read that and imagined robots reading the news on TV? (Then I imagined them doing it in the style of "Robot Theater" from _Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In_. /\/\/\/\/\)
I for one welcome our robot King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Of course, it would be much more useful if it could make the water into wine. Or maybe beer. Yes, beer.
Now the good thing for us all is that it'd be pretty hard to patent this - there is some well-documented prior art, after all, dating all 2000 years ago.
Don't they know that not all of their readers are going to get their obscure American pop culture references? The least they could do is include a link to the guy's website, or something. Besides, I'm sure he could probably use a little publicity outside of the US.
"a robot built to walk on water, much like small insects, bugs, and of course, Jesus."
You left out Elvis.
I have to agree that the Slashdot post is misleading at best. This is not anywhere close to being something 'new' at all. Yea maybe it's different, buts thats like saying that an xbox insn't a video game console because it is 'different' than a PS2. The point is that the Slashdot post was allowed to go up with a misleading point of view using an article that is in itself misleading. If you can get into CIA headquarters, or have been there in the last year, they have had an exhibit of their oldest insect bots on display for the last year. They make this thing look stupid and childish. That in turn makes the moderator who allowed this post to look as ill informed and childish. "Mommy look what happens when I put cards in my bicycle spokes! I invented it! Aren't you proud!"
I read the internet for the articles.
but does it run Jesux?
sulli
RTFJ.
Dieselsweetie guestcomic by Steven Cloud just yesterdays' comic too.
Will this bring about the Good Book V.1
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
"much like small insects, bugs, and of course, Jesus"
You mean the Jesus Lizard:
http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/ 9603/leapin_lizards/
You just reinvented the frog.
..does it prove that Jesus was a robot, like I was saying all these years, or what ?
With a chemical sensor, it could monitor water supplies for contamination or other toxins; with a camera it could be a spy or an explorer; with a net or a boom, it could skim contaminants off the top of water...
Walking on water lets it do these things? It's a pretty cool accomplishment for sure, but I don't see how it's any more useful than other things that just simply float.
Nana nana nah, the bastard sank!
At the bottom of the
if he had thrown a bar of soap into the sea and drowned him?
But maybe robots can't drown. I think I'll go an lie down for a few days in a nice quiet cave.
No problem with the Arabs so quit trying to lump others in with you and stop using those silly code words like antisemitic, xenophobe, hater, supremest, homophobe etc. to label people; it's way past thin.
much like small insects, bugs, and of course, Jesus.
Except this is real and one of the above is a myth.