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DARPA Planning Liquid Robots

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the where-is-sarah-conner dept.

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."

7 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Have You Seen This Boy? by igotmybfg · · Score: 5, Funny

    *Holds up picture of John Connor*

    1. Re:Have You Seen This Boy? by croddy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wolfy's fine, honey. Where are you?

  2. You're not thinking like a woman by MarkByers · · Score: 5, Funny

    > 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...
  3. Re:Idea management by Blockbuster by jimbolauski · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  4. Gah by RichMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. But but by ady1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    But do they spill linux?

  6. No different from many other breakthroughs . . . by mmell · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Somebody says "hey, this remarkable thing might be possible." DARPA says "Hey, we should investigate and see if that's useful."

    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!