Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Tree Climbing Robot

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bugbot-crawling-its-way-to-the-top dept.

galactic grub writes "New Scientist's new Tech Blog has an article about a remarkable, if slightly creepy, tree-climbing robot being developed by robotics experts from Carnegie Mellon and several other US Universities. The article comes complete with a video clip of it going up several different surfaces."

26 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Great... by danpsmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...now where am I gonna hide when the robots attack...

    --
    Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    1. Re:Great... by ShaniaTwain · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...now where am I gonna hide when the robots attack...

      In a cavernous underground layer of course! Don't you watch movies?

      You don't really have to worry anyways, they dont want to hurt you they just want to use you as a power source.

      --
      Starsucks
    2. Re:Great... by Somegeek · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hi Shania!

      I must admit that I've always thought that you were really cute and that I would love to meet you, but I find I'm somewhat put off by your lack of knowledge about our language, and unfortunately, what it says about your level of education. I realize that you kept hearing a word in the movies and it sure sounded like 'layer', but you were actually hearing a completely different word; 'lair'. Wacky huh?

      --
      And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
    3. Re:Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I've known a few guys who thought they were pretty smart
      But you've got being right down to an art
      You think you're a genius--you drive me up the wall
      You're a regular original, a know-it-all

      Okay, so you're a grammer nazi who understands homophones
      That don't impress me much

      -- Shania

    4. Re:Great... by Ben+Jackson · · Score: 3, Funny
      How ironic!
      I must admit that I've always thought that you were really cute and that I would love to meet you
      Of course what you really want to do is meat her.

      (I was really torn between that and suggesting that, like the original poster, you wanted to layer...)

  2. So, what happens when it gets stuck? by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do I have to call the firemen or tech support?

  3. ObHHGG... by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, robots have beaten humans to the realisation that it was a bad idea to come down out of the trees in the first place.

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  4. Creeping Tom by digitaldc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously such a robots could have plenty of useful applications, in search-and-rescue and space exploration, for example. But presumably it could also help you reach those really hard-to-prune branches.

    Or put a moveable camera on its head, make it climb your neighbor's house, and you will have the perfect 'Creeping Tom.'

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  5. This is just what we need by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...for when NASA launches a probe to Endor.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  6. *ring*ring*ring* by mblase · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Hello, Midville Fire Department."
    "Yes, I need you to get my... my pet out of a tree in my yard, please. It's stuck."
    "Certainly, ma'am. Is it a housecat?"
    "Well, no.... I'm a little... I don't know how to explain...."
    "That's okay, ma'am. A bird, then? Cockatoo or a parrot?"
    "Well, it's not exactly like that...."
    "A gecko? Iguana? We've done iguanas before, there's nothing to be embarassed about."
    "Actually, um... it's a robot."
    "A robot, ma'am?"
    "Yes, my husband was demonstrating this six-legged robot he's been working on at the university for the last year and he forgot to program it to come back down... hello? Hello?..."

  7. Our new overlords by pilybaby · · Score: 1, Funny

    Personally I welcome our new tree climbing mechanised overlords

  8. Pleasure... by garyr_h · · Score: 2, Funny

    The ballroom dancing box is just foreplay for the sex bot.

    --
    http://chickencamels.poemofquotes.com/
  9. Re:Still can't beat the japanese by mopslik · · Score: 5, Funny

    5. Find Sarah Connor.

  10. Re:Follow up by SEWilco · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gettind down is easy. It's putting it back together that is the hard part.

  11. humans have created a tree climbing robot... by diablobsb · · Score: 2, Funny

    humans have created a tree climbing robot... and yet the Daleks still can't go upstairs...

    --
    I for one, welcome our new hot grits... PROFIT!
  12. REAL robots don't climb trees... by paco3791 · · Score: 5, Funny

    they cut them down instead.

  13. Re:Still can't beat the japanese by bermudatriangleoflov · · Score: 1, Funny

    A robot that can kick my ass in tennis will still not necessarily "understand" that it has kicked my ass :)

  14. Re:Follow up by digitaldc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Any kid knows that getting up is easy, but getting down is much harder. How have they faired on that?

    Well the fineprint does say to call a doctor if it stays up for more than 4 hours.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  15. And of course, by le0p · · Score: 2, Funny

    I welcome our new arboreal robot overlords.

    --
    "I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."-Oscar Wilde
  16. Hard Hats? by ModemRat · · Score: 1, Funny

    Are hard hats really necessary when you are watching your robot climb the tree in the parking lot? Then again, I guess these guys don't get out too much.

  17. Re:Still can't beat the japanese by 2names · · Score: 2, Funny

    FWOOP!

    --
    "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
  18. damn hippies by DAE51D · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, just what we need, another tree-huggin hippie robot.

  19. Re:Follow up by Isotopian · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not quite... being able to build and repair a tree climbing robot in three days is easy... getting a wife is the hard part.

    --

    It's poetry with a beat behind it! And guns! They're like beatniks with automatic weapons.

  20. Re:Awesome! by TapeApe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Actually, this does look to be a pretty good thing. Now if they can just shrink it down to, say, the size of a mouse or a gerbil, my days of threading network cable through walls and ductwork will be FAR simpler!

    Always thought it'd be ideal to have a little robot to do that dirty work. I've had a heck of a time training real mice and gerbils to climb walls for me. They'll climb all right, but won't go where I want 'em... and they get downright hostile if I try to attach Cat-5 cables to their tails.

  21. Re:it's an iguana by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, it's obviously a six legged iguana. Except it's boxy. And has no head. And only a stump instead of a tail. And it doesn't really move like an iguana.

    But apart from that it's quite hard to tell it apart from an iguana. It's quite obvious where they got their inspiration from.

    Anyone saying otherwise has to be an iguana hating fanatic.

    --

    May contain traces of nut.
    Made from the freshest electrons.
  22. Tree Climbin' Robots Eh? by kfazz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Robot Timeline: 1. evolve sexual reproduction. 2. leave The trees. 3. develop robots to climb the trees for you~! 4. ????? 5. Profit! . .. 9. Robots Overcome humanity 10. The Matrix 11. GOTO 1.