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Voltron-Like Modular Robot Demonstrated
MattSparkes writes "The 'Superbot', a modular robot that transforms itself into different shapes in order to walk, crawl and clamber up inclines, has been demonstrated in at the University of Southern California. Each bot module is effectively a robot in its own right, and can move independently, flip over and rotate like wheels. They also have 3D accelerometers that let them know their precise orientation. The six sides of each module can dock with any other module. Once connected, the modules can communicate, coordinate shape changes and even transmit power. The bot's creators hope it will make a great working companion for places like, say, the Moon. Or Mars."
Wii come in piece!
Imagine a beowolf cluster of WiiMotes coming attacking you and you get the idea.
liqbase
The bot's creators hope it will make a great working companion for places like, say, the Moon. Or Mars.
Oh, sure, send it to Mars and leave us completely defenseless against King Zarkon.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
1. I for one welcome our new modular overlords. 2. ...
3. Profit!
Hopefully this robot will be smart enough to form it's blazing sword at the BEGINNING of a fight instead of waiting until it is getting it's ass kicked.
Found some more footage: modular robot.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
The Replicators.
When the robots gain the ability to create more of themselves using whatever metal they can get their pliers on, then we'll be in trouble.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
The videos are all very cute but there is no actual footage demonstrating the "polymorphic" robot actually changing shape from say a wheel to say a humanoid then say again to a Caterpillar. If a bunch of these cubes self assembled into a shape to perform a task I would be seriously impressed. Also did any one notice that the feet cubes had plates on the end for the "humanoid" robot so not all the cubes were identical. We need self assembling Lego not cubes with feet !!
But I agree, we should definitely let our mighty, nigh-invulnerable robot slaves establish an unassailable beachhead on Mars. Also, we should give them human-like motivations, emotions, and needs, so that they may better serve us. And, some of them should look just like humans, so that they can use our equipment and so people will be more comfortable around them.
I also had another thought. If the cubes need to be aware of the configuration of all the other cubes then what is the limit to the number of cubes that can attach before we run out of comms bandwidth or memory in the device or CPU just trying to work out what shape it thinks it may be in?
Now instead of wrapping someone's toilet in plastic wrap, you can wrap someone's robot in plastic wrap and watch the look on his face when the robot won't reassemble itself to his orders. Or wrap one segment only, and watch as it tries to assemble itself. Hilarity ensues.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I'm afraid the Japanese lump looks much better it even demonstrates the units changing shape which is what its about I think :)
e rimentE.htm
http://unit.aist.go.jp/is/dsysd/mtran/English/exp
Where are the lions? And the myriad of chromatically matching drivers?
And Pidge? How could they forget Pidge???
First winter rain-
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat.
-Basho
The robots have a high pitched and annoying sound! Consider my hearing checked!!
Voltran.
my pet machine
Modula-2
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
This isn't Voltron-like at all; Voltron was originally one robot that was split into five pieces by the evil witch's spell!
Why do I *know* that?!
geek. lawyer.
For larger structures, you'd probably have the robots start assigning themselves as "leaders" or "coordinator" (either by convenient position, superior hardware or just random), so that it collects all the data of the robots in it's immediate vicinity and then reports to the other coordinator cubes. And then onec it outgrows that, have them create more and more eschelons. It would start to fall apart for complex movements or movements where all pieces are as dependant on their neighbours as the blocks on the other side of the structure, but it would at least help for simpler large-scale problems.
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive