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.
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.
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?
Seriously, I wonder if a combination of those two robots would be possible? It would be an ideal combination, what with the ammount of small insects which hover just above most still waters...
IANAS, but AFAIK, lava is an entirely different consistency to water and doesnt have a miniscus (spag?) as such to 'stride' on. Equally, if it's hot enough to melt ROCK, metal doesn't stand much of a chance does it?