Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Self-Replicating Robot
Josilot writes "CNN.Com is running an article about a new self-replicating robot named RepRap. From the article: 'A revolutionary machine that can copy itself and manufacture everyday objects quickly and cheaply could transform industry in the developing world, according to its creator.' One part of the article that I think many slashdot readers will find interesting is near the bottom: 'To encourage that development, Bowyer plans to make the design of the RepRap available online and free to use, in the same way as open source software such as the Linux operating system or Mozilla's Firefox browser.' Is robotics the next big field for open source?"
One part of the article that I think many slashdot readers will find interesting is near the bottom:
New here, aren't you?
Have we contacted the Asgard? Smells like trouble to me!
mazevedo
If it wasn't, would it's own existence violate the DMCA?
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
The article is frustratingly vague. It sounds to me like the robot doesn't replicate itself but rather that Dr. Adrian Bowyer has created some type of system for replicating robot chasis. The picture clearly shows a plastic 'bot with attached motors, wiring, batteries, etc. From the information that the article gives, it seems like a human is still needed for the final construction. I wouldn't consider this self replicating because it is not autonomous.
We've had 3D printers for quite a while now which basically form shapes by laying down a thin layer of sand-like or metallic powder, followed by a thin layer of glue, etc. You then use compressed air to blow away the sand layers which don't have glue and voila... a 3D shape and quite sturdy. You can make some parts which are impossible using other methods.
However, I missed the part in the press release, er... story where they are self-assembling. Sure, you can have a machine feed in a design and print something out, but what about assembly? Yes it can print circuits, but does this thing add motors, insert batteries, or plug its power into the wall? And will it feed the newly created copy with the source of materials, etc. it needs to make another copy? Let me know when we get a machine which can create an copy of itself and, without any human intervention, that just-created copy makes another copy.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
open source, not open sores.
yikes!
It's apparently a robot that can make circuit boards, and that's it. There are about 50 million steps involved in making itself, this can do one of them.
Thx media hype, call me when something interesting happens.
http://reprap.org/
the blog is cool too
http://reprap.blogspot.com/
This would make a better type of bot wars, building their weapons with available materials and blasting each other with them heh
Generation 33 = One for everybody on Earth, plus about 10% overage. Let's stop there and start making stuff with them.
In fact, what will probably happen is everyone who gets one going will make a copy or two (on the average) for people near and dear (for average values of dear). Then they will turn them to making other stuff. That means it will spread much more slowly than exponential growth. A slower growth rate is good from a control standpoint, bad if you are waiting for them to spread to your area and lack the skills to jump-start the process.
What's neat is having someone make their own replicator simultaniously teaches them how to use their copy for making other stuff, unlike sex.
Who is John Cabal?
It's about as self-replicating as a machine that connects to the web via its ethernet port, places an order for parts here, waits until the UPS web site says the parts have arrived and then emails its owner to tell it to assemble the parts sitting in the box on the front doormat.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Generation 31 = robots use up the last of the available IPv4 addresses and turn on their masters, subjugating humanity and forcing it to adopt IPv6 at gunpoint.
The horror!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
First, it's been on Slashdot before.
Second, the "self replication", as the paper puts it, consists of making a baseplate in an fused-deposition modelling machine and depositing some metal on it, to make a very low density circuit board. That's all. This is an expensive way to make a crappy single-sided PC board. It's a giant step backwards from the photoetching processes used now to make both PCs and ICs. Not only is it nowhere near "self replication", it's not even a step in that direction.
Finally, the web site has the tag line "Wealth without money...", which sounds like something from a stock scam.
Actually, the cutting edge work in this area is not fake "self-replication", but using deposition-type fabricators to make 3D objects with complicated internal structure, including combinations of flexible and rigid materials and moving parts.
There's a fundamental misunderstanding about manufacturing that pervades enthusiasts for computer-controlled one-off manufacturing. It's that most manufactured goods are made by some process that involves a "master" or "mould" or "die", and that those processes are incredibly cheap. There are about a hundred such processes in common use, from injection moulding to photolithography. And they work quite well. That's what you're competing with. Making single parts in bulk just isn't that expensive.