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Swarms of Microrobots Over Europe?
Roland Piquepaille writes "In 'Mini robots to undertake major tasks?,' IST Results describes a EU-funded project which allowed to build several kinds of microrobots in the last three years. These robots are very small (about 1.5 cm by 3 cm), have limited on-board intelligence and are wirelessly controlled by a central robot control system. A follow-on project has already started, with an even more ambitious goal: deploy 'real' swarms of up to 1,000 robot clients. Such robot swarms are expected to perform 'a variety of applications, including micro assembly, biological, medical or cleaning tasks.' Read more for additional details, pictures and references about this follow-on project not described by the article mentioned above."
In Europe, robots deploy you.
How long until Toner Wars and Dog Pod grids?
Okay I have a serious question, is there any reason we can't create robots specifically designed to build an exact copy of themselves only half as small? Wouldn't this allow us to have teeny tiny robots in a few months?
I was doing a search on my Google personalized homepage that has a RSS feed from Slashdot. For a second there, I read "Swarms of Microsofts Over Europe". Whew!
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"Such robot swarms are expected to perform 'a variety of applications, including micro assembly, biological, MEDICAL or cleaning tasks"
They may be small but it would take a heck of a needle to inject them into your arm. OUCH!
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
"Imagine thousands small, spider like robots invading your house throught ventilation shafts, sewers, etc. while you are sleeping."
It's not all bad. Imagine Tom Cruise crashing through your window and asking to borrow your bath tub!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)