DARPA Planning Liquid Robots

moon_monkey writes "According to New Scientist, Darpa is soliciting proposals for so-called Chemical Robots (ChemBots) that would be soft, flexible and could manoeuvre through openings smaller than their static structural dimensions. They suggest that it could be made from shape-memory materials, electro- or magneto-rheological materials or even folding components."

Comments

Idea management by Blockbuster

[MosesJones]

Someone at the DoD needs to hire slightly less movies and think more about how old fashioned "hearts and minds" would be a better thing to pour money into. Fancy stuff like decent hospitals wouldn't go amiss either. I know its only a white-paper request but wouldn't it be great to see more of these blue-sky research things focused on the non-killing or spying part of "Defence"

I also like the timescales from the request
Posted Date: Mar 23, 2007
Original Response Date: Feb 14, 2008
Current Response Date: Jul 02, 2007

So first off they expected it to take a year, now its just a 4 month thing.