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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."

14 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..
  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. Re:Still can't beat the japanese by MaWeiTao · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why exactly do you say that?

    Sure Japanese have developed some impressive robots, but I wouldn't call something like the ballroom dancing robot a great feat of technology. Japanese designers seem to go for flashy robots, putting immense effort in creating something that has little practical utility but creates quite a stir. One company developed a humanoid robot and then we see dozens of companies cloning the original concept.

    The ones developed in the US and Europe tend to be developed for real world applications. They don't look pretty, but they get the job done, solving a specific challenge in the process.

    Not to discredit what the Japanese are doing, as they certainly are innovating too, but there's no reason to put down this work just because it doesn't look like Honda's ASIMO.

  6. Follow up by BecomingLumberg · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    --
    If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
    1. Re:Follow up by SEWilco · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  7. From the makers of BigDog by Gedalia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is another robot built by the guys at Boston Dynamics http://www.bostondynamics.com/. The robotic pack mule that they built ( BigDog ) was linked to last Friday. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/ 04/0240246

    There's also Rhex a six legged waterproof go anywhere robot.
    more info at http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?sect ion=robotics

  8. Re:Still can't beat the japanese by PitaBred · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, the AI lessons in making a robot react CORRECTLY to a ping-pong ball have absolutely no relationship to things like #3? They're solving 'problems' while gaining massive leaps in understanding. Even if their end result isn't immediately useful, the lessons they learn from it are.

    --
    My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
  9. Re:Still can't beat the japanese by mopslik · · Score: 5, Funny

    5. Find Sarah Connor.

  10. REAL robots don't climb trees... by paco3791 · · Score: 5, Funny

    they cut them down instead.

  11. damn hippies by DAE51D · · Score: 5, Funny

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