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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."
*Holds up picture of John Connor*
The small creatures discussed can only get through places where their bone structure allows.
Its inpractical for a mouse to get through somewhere that involves breaking its own bones (unless a mouse is chasing it!).
Make boney robots with flubber muscles and batteries and you are onto a winner.
No flex required in the skeleton.
liqbase
I would by a door made out of this material and it would slap solicitors whenever they knock at my door.
Now when someone asks what crawled up your ass they might be very serious.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
> I'm not exactly sure what they want with a robotic slug though. The design request seems pretty weird to me.
It's not meant for men.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
No, we wouldn't want a robot that could squeeze through rubble to find survivors of a building collapse. No sirree.
The Governator Arnold must be notified immediately, his presence in our world was not in vain. He will still have his fight before he is 120.
You can't handle the truth.
YOU'VE KILLED US ALL!!!
It is as bad as you think and they really are out to get you.
The way the request is written, there could be some non-killing applications for these kinds of robots. Search and rescue operations frequently require getting into small spaces to find out what's going on. Collecting information from an unaccessible location has many practical applications. If the espionage applications are the ones that will pay for the research, so be it. The majority of research funding goes into finding new and creative ways to eradicate the human race, but this one could also have up sides.
The timelines are consistent with current project management methodologies - if you have no intention of completing the project, you may as well fail on an aggressive timeline. At least they haven't yet reached the point where the start date is expected to be after the completion date.
Sure sounds more like covert ops (sneak in and blow them up) to me.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Lots of money goes towards protecting soldiers, light body armor for example. When the Chinese decide to invade the US I'll be glad we have fancy killing weapons. The best way to protect our soldiers is to eliminate the enemy. It would be nice to think everyone can play together but thats not the case, I would rather have laser guns that collect dust than old m16s that can't penetrate the enemy's new body armor.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
What, it only takes 40 years for the DoD to pick up on cheesy B-grade sci fi movies?
I always really liked the skit about the "Snit" - scientists supposedly create an organism that is comprised of the perfect form of protein.
Interviewer: "What does it look like?"
Scientist: "Kind of like guacamole, with eyes."
and a bit later on...
Scientist: "The only problem is we haven't figured out how to kill it."
Interviewer: "Have you tried grinding it up?"
Scientist: "Yes, we just get more snits.
and at the end...
Scientist: "And then there's the problem with the guards..."
Interviewer: "What problem?"
Scientist: "Last night, we had 2 150-pound guards. This morning, we had one 300-pound snit."
Was this a Monty Python skit?
All pass beyond reach of medicine. None pass beyond the reach of love.
you do realise the entire internet was designed as a hardened system to help communication in face of a massive nuclear strike.
What starts with an expensive cold military purpose becomes a tool for every day use.
There are very few things the military does that won't have practical everyday applications in 20 years.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Variable, flexible and soft is not liquid.
- liquid implies no strong bonding between neighboring particals, the particals are free to change their relationships with each other.
Remote control is not robot.
- robot is autonomous.
This was a rant.
Of course DARPA wants something with military applications — that's what the "D" in DARPA is for. But that doesn't mean that military technology can't have large civilian payoffs, either. (Need I remind anyone here of the Internet? That was back in the days of ARPA, but that organization has always been oriented towards the technological support of national security.)
People wonder why America is producing less and less Scientists and Engineers. It's because we have no imagination any more. We need to get our heads out of the sand and find something to reach for or learn to accept not being important in the world.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
But do they spill linux?
Remember the inter-net? "Connect multiple computers with disparate architectures manufactured and designed by multiple manufacturers into a single integrated network architecture with seamless sharing of data, regardless of native format." I was vaguely associated with the development work DARPA did on this back in the early 80's - I was sure they were chasing a pipe-dream. DARPA often does, you know.
Yup - if only one pipe-dream in a hundred ever makes it, the internet sure shows that the other ninety-nine pipes weren't wasted; we can use 'em as tubes for the intarweb. So even if we don't come up with a Cyberdyne T-1000, let's see if something useful does come out of this research. Remember, the Nautilus, space travel, powered flight, even travel in excess of fifty to sixty miles per hour were all once ridiculous ideas - all theoretically impossible for many good scientific reasons. Now, we have nuclear submarines, (arguably) reusable spacecraft, jet travel and teenagers who can't seem to drive at less than seventy to eighty miles per hour!
Not important? I would mention from a foreigner's perspective we believe you will likely remain the cornerstone of the free world for quite some time. It is for that reason we are concerned about a number of your present actions and attitudes.
Not true, see here Amazon.com: Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet: Books: Katie Hafner While it was soon found that it would be useless in a nuclear attack, comments saying that it wasnt intended for use in one are revisionist history, even the budget allocations show, ARPANET was meant to be created to survive a nuclear attack.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Since when has giving people things ever worked to win "hearts and minds" in the long run? Todays breed of anti-government anarchists, hippies, and malcontents are amongst the richest and most privileged human beings in history. They have attained that status through the rights and opportunities afforded to them by their governments. Yet their "hearts and minds" seem to be planted firmly in the camp of those who would not only give them nothing, but take away everything.
"Free Shit" generally leads only to resentment and antipathy. It is by providing people with the freedom and opportunity to decide their own future that the US has become the great nation it is today, while communist nations which attempt to provide everything for everyone while asking nothing of anyone have blown away like dust on the winds of history.
When the Chinese invade the US? With what sea/airlift capability, exactly?
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
Human bridge over the Atlantic.
a mimetic polyalloy
Furthermore, why? They could easily just sell all their US debt and send the US into hyperinflation. They don't desire to do this right now - but as soon as they have a domestic economy anywhere near our size and we present any sort of threat, they can easily cripple us in that regard without firing a shot or harming themselves in any way.
People in Soviet Russia, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation
I can't...
+1 Funny
-1 Wrong Ocean
"The amount of intelligence on this planet is a constant. The population is growing." -Cole's Axiom
The designs for Robots of various types, and uses have been around for years. Hollywood is by no means a bastion of creativity. But the main problem that seems to be overlooked by most Wanna-Be Robot Inventors is the POWER SUPPLY. I would think that the DARPA folks would first want do some fundamental research, and solve the problem that is the choke point for all Robotics projects.