Robot Aims To Walk On Water

qeorqe writes "CMU researchers are developing a robot that runs across water (PDF). It is modeled after the basilisk lizard, which has that rare ability. The researchers have done both computer simulations and experiments with test models."

Comments

I Bet It Sinks

[UncleWilly]

But if it doesn't, will other roots begin to worship it?

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[Anonymous Coward]

But if it doesn't, will other roots begin to worship it? It will first have to convert DC into AC and perform a hard reboot.

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[bfischer]

What is this root worship of which you speak?

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[KiloByte]

God, root... What's the difference?

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[dvice_null]

Walking on the water is easy. Just wait for the winter or find a bridge or go standing on your toilet seat.

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[vigmeister]

God's password is his birthday - that's why he encrypted the origin of the Universe.

Cheers!

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[halcyon1234]

Actually, it's easy to walk on water if you move fast enough

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[OhHellWithIt]

Not until someone hangs it on a cross.

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[Evilest Doer]

God, root... What's the difference?

Ray, if somebody asks you if you're a Root, you say "Yes"!

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[d0rp]

You can also dodge bullets!

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[kd5ujz]

And only then if it reboots three days later.

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[Trent Hawkins]

Japan already has such a robot

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[capnchicken]

0 isn't a very good password

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[vigmeister]

It is if you don't know the format...

Cheers!

Re:I Bet It Sinks

[Danny Rathjens]

You took out the Russian accent. :)

<sfx origin="Pitr's keyboard" "tap tap">
<voice origin="Mike" "I swear you must think you're some kind of god.">
<sfx origin="Pitr's keyboard" "tappy tappy">
<voice origin="Pitr" "God, root, what is difference?">
--User Friendly

Already done

[Ohreally_factor]

Bah! Apple has already built a phone that can walk on water. This is just a phone with arms and legs.

Re:Already done

[MECC]

Actually, someone tried, and the iPhone can't walk on water.

Re:Already done

[ArsenneLupin]

From that article:

Naturally, if you drop an iPhone anywhere in publicon the street, in an office, etc.you run the risk of someone stepping on the phone. Or more likely: of someone stealing it...

oooh

[iamdrscience]

Remember Christ? He's back! In robot form!

Re:oooh

[streetphantom]

The vatican has just confiscated the robot and all the basilisk lizards.

Re:oooh

[weicco]

I thought just the same. How is this even on Slashdot? This is obviously 2007 year old dupe! Hardly newsworthy...

Re:oooh

[somersault]

You could at least do the meme thingy justice..

I [important]for one[/important] will be the first to welcome our new hydroplanetic cyberlizard overlords

Re:oooh

[streetphantom]

I must be new here.

Re:oooh

[rekked]

Isn't the Galactic Pope a lizard itself?

Re:oooh

[alx5000]

So if I'm drowning will I finally get to cry "Save me, Jebus"???

Re:oooh

[midwestnets]

Strange that he would come back in robot form and his mom would come back in shark form. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/07 0524-shark-virgin.html

Re:oooh

[GammaKitsune]

Crocodylus Pontifex

Basilisk

[Enderandrew]

The robot also turns you to stone, but don't fear. Harry Potter will slay it with a sword.

Re:Basilisk

[GammaKitsune]

Potter killed it, Mal. Killed it with a sword. How weird is that?

neat trick.

[apodyopsis]

its a neat trick, but are there any commercial applications?

where does a robot that walks on water succeed over an autonomous boat?

I mean, at least when they developed the technological equivalent of the geckos foot they had very sound commercial applications in mind. As robot amphibious platforms go this has just got to be inefficient and unreliable.

Re:neat trick.

[timmarhy]

so what if it doesn't? not everything is about money you realise?

Re:neat trick.

[Eivind]

Unknown. But the paper hypothesises that it may be possible to build robots that can move efficiently over land *and* water, using bipedal or quadroped legged walking for both. I don't think it's *that* hard to see possible applications for this. I bet the military could imagine a few, for starters. (and that tends to be a good start for robotics, lots of stuff that are today commonplace started out as military projects. Jet-planes anyone ?

Re:neat trick.

[Joebert]

Basilisks have a strange sense of humor, they sometimes took the messages to the emeny during testing.

Re:neat trick.

[Klanglor]

Segway will buy it and sell it as the Segway2. Modern Amphibous transportation. by year 2050. wings will be added and people will mod the skin to make it look like dragons and hence the dragon riders shall be reborn. By 2075 a virus will take over all those beast and a new breed of dragon slayers will be born, armed with emp guns. imagine all the $$$$$$

Re:neat trick.

[Random Destruction]

Military indeed. I can think of few things more frightening than a motion tracking quadrupedal robot running across a river at you, guns blazing.

Re:neat trick.

[jamesh]

where does a robot that walks on water succeed over an autonomous boat?

Presumably our new water walking robot overlords won't need to be as waterproof?

Re:neat trick.

[CastrTroy]

I often think this same thing about all bipedal walking robots. It's neither the easiest way to make things mobile, nor does it provide the most mobility. If you're dealing with uneven terrain, something with six legs would probably work a lot better, or if you want to cover lots of land, then something with wheels or tank track works better. I can't see two legged robots offering any serious commercial applications, apart from the novelty of having something that looks human. Would you rather have a robot maid that could do all the housework, or a robot maid that could only do half of the housework, but walked on two legs?

Re:neat trick.

[mblase]

where does a robot that walks on water succeed over an autonomous boat?

Well, for starters, an autonomous boat can't walk on land.

Re:neat trick.

[boyfaceddog]

Yes, by golly. I can't think of any reason why anyone would want an all terain gun platform, uh, robot.

Sorry, just can't help myself.

Re:neat trick.

[MrNaz]

Dude, this is Slashdot. What the hell do you *think* everyone here wants a robot maid to do?

Re:neat trick.

[ruben.gutierrez]

I think repairing autonomous boats would be a commercial application. Give the robot the ability to freely move about the entire boat (in and out of water).

Re:neat trick.

[TheLink]

Uh. Run Linux?

The more ambitious ones will want a beowulf cluster of robot maids.

Think about it: Robot maid clustering with high performance interconnects and NUMA[1]...

[1] Non Uniformed Maid Access?

Erm, shower time...

Re:neat trick.

[Belial6]

That's what I was thinking. The terror of seeing your unfeeling, inhuman attacker run on water would be... well, terrifying. I'm thinking that it would be so shocking that if that scene were put into a sci-fi movie today, it would bet universally panned as totally unrealistic.

Re:neat trick.

[geekoid]

To fire a weapon of reasonable caliber would take too much weight. I doubt this is a practical application.
Tracking, recon, autonomous small package delivery. Medical supplies, information, bombs.

Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

We have robots that can barely walk & these guys are making robots that run on water?! Inconcievable!

Expansion Packs

[xhydra]

After Commercial release Addons will be available to enable robot to
- Turn water into budweiser.
- recruit disciplebots
.
.
enuf of the Jesus jokes already

All slashdotters are going to hell

If you'd like to see it...

[chub_mackerel]

Here's a video (of the lizard not the robot):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhsxo7vY8ac

Re:If you'd like to see it...

[Tomun]

Heres an even better video, driving on water:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD0hN-96ypE

Re:If you'd like to see it...

[fatphil]

And the same in laboratory conditions, using a high speed camera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVVcWafi-MU

Re:If you'd like to see it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, he has to run to stay on top of the water. That's why Jesus was in such a hurry when he was walking on water. And he told us that he was just late for another miracle. I'm starting to have second thoughts about that man.

Re:If you'd like to see it...

[Zaatxe]

I'm not allowed to access Youtube from work, you insensitive clods!
(Although my boss got very impressed for me being eligible for mod points in Slashdot...)

holy robot

[Anonymous Coward]

BEDEVERE: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER:Bread!
VILLAGER:Apples!
VILLAGER:Uh, very small rocks!
VILLAGER:Mud!
VILLAGER:Uh, churches! Churches!
VILLAGER:Lead! Lead!
ARTHUR:A duck!
CROWD:Oooh.
BEDEVERE:Exactly. So, logically... if this robot float on water, then it is made of wood

Easy

[CmdrGravy]

I can already walk on water, I think these robots are a pointless abomination.

It's amphibious

[Colin Smith]

where does a robot that walks on water succeed over an autonomous boat? Course, there have been amphibious vehicles for years.

I know why

[tsa]

At first I thought: 'Cool, but why would they want to do that?' Now it's clear to me: a robot that can carry a man over water in style is very useful when suddenly you are overcome by global warming. I live in the Netherlands, and I think I will need such a machine fairly soon.

Re:I know why

[krazo]

It's actually so we have one less means of escape when the robots take over.

They can already walk, climb stairs, drive cars and there's the one who thinks humans taste like bacon.

I'm just hoping no one invents a robot that can climb trees or all that practice in my backyard will be for nothing.

Re:I know why

[tsa]

Sorry, but...

Re:I know why

[tsa]

Wow I first posted the link and then watched the video. That thing looks very creepy.

learning about the lizards

[Takichi]

I encourage people to actually read the article. It breaks down the mechanics of the basilisk's run cycle quite nicely. It has some really nice images and graphs illustrating it, too. I know it's a lot to ask, but at least look at the pictures in the article! By the way, they point out that learning more about the way the basilisk actually runs on water is one of the merits of the paper.

It's all well and good, but...

[IBBoard]

It's all well and good planning on making a quadrupedal robot with the potential for it being a personnel-carrying vehicle, but what about the ride itself? Especially when it has to run on water I can't imagine it being particularly smooth (like, for example, how the basilisk they're modelling twists its body).

Re:It's all well and good, but...

[CastrTroy]

Also, it's one thing to make a 70 cm, 80 gram, lizard walk on water. It's a completely different story to get a 2 metre, 4000 pound (my guess, cargo included) personel carrier to walk on water. Just getting the machine to move fast enough is going to require a whole lot of power. The feet would have to be huge, and cause lots of air resistance when trying to move them. Just because an ant can lift 50 times it's own weight, doesn't mean you can build a pickup truck that can do the same.

Re:It's all well and good, but...

[Ticklemonster]

Aha! It's a non submersible martini mixer for James Bond!

Been done.

[Kurayamino-X]

Though, with wall-climbing buggies and a snowmobile, not a robot.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-QBiBcK96Bs

It had better sink..

[rockypg]

.. when it stops running. Otherwise it is a Duck, not a basilisk

An interesting question actually

[archeopterix]

its a neat trick, but are there any commercial applications?

where does a robot that walks on water succeed over an autonomous boat?

This question becomes interesting when you point it back at the lizard. Why does it walk on water instead of just swimming? My guess is that it's energy-efficient since it only has to overcome the viscosity of the air, not water.

Re:An interesting question actually

[Anonymous Coward]

This question becomes interesting when you point it back at the lizard. Why does it walk on water instead of just swimming?

We can go further. Why does it go across water at all? Why not stay where it was born and raised, rather than pursue questionable gains across the pond? Scientists are so busy wondering whether they can get a robot to walk across water, that they forget to question whether the robot should.

Re:An interesting question actually

[UnanimousCoward]

Same reason that a dog licks its you-know-what...

Re:An interesting question actually

[aadvancedGIR]

I would bet the #1 reason is that it tries to avoid being eaten by a fish.

Re:An interesting question actually

[jamesh]

Of course... because it doesn't have hands!

Re:An interesting question actually

[Anonymous Coward]

To get rid of the taste of dogfood?

Re:An interesting question actually

[UbuntuDupe]

Yes, but doesn't walking on water introduce a huge inefficiency in itself? From what I remember, the reason that this lizard can walk on water is because of the surface tension, combined with the fact that it weighs so little. Surface tension can only support so much! So yes, you'd be more efficient in one respect, but you'd have to make the robots really small, limiting what they can do.

Re:An interesting question actually

[archeopterix]

From what I remember, the reason that this lizard can walk on water is because of the surface tension, combined with the fact that it weighs so little.

I don't think that the surface tension alone is sufficient to keep the lizard above water. It's rather the speed of its feet moving downwards and the speed of its feet moving back up, before the water closes above the foot.

Re:An interesting question actually

[SatanicPuppy]

Well, no, there are other options. You could increase the surface area of whatever part is in contact with the water, or you could increase the speed at which it makes contact.

At a sufficiently high speed water is about as solid as cement, so there is no limit to weight as long as you can make it hit the water fast/hard enough.

Re:An interesting question actually

[White Yeti]

I've seen this "Jesus Christ Lizard" (Google's first hit) on TV. It seems like it runs on water for only a short distance before dropping to swim, and it's using its big webbed feet to stay up rather than surface tension. It runs on the water to escape being eaten by critters on land, so it's betting the water is safer than the land.

I'm waiting for a R/C robostrider.

Re:An interesting question actually

[grimdawg]

Lizards are cold-blooded, right?

My guess is that it's not too great with getting wet and keeping warm.

Re:An interesting question actually

[ChrisMaple]

Why does it go across water at all?

To get to the other side.

Re:An interesting question actually

[archeopterix]

Lizards are cold-blooded, right?

My guess is that it's not too great with getting wet and keeping warm.

Water snakes have no such problems, but well - maybe the lizard lives at cooler waters.

Re:An interesting question actually

[Deliveranc3]

"Why did the Lizard Cross the Pond?"
"To get to the other side..."

That joke is NEVER getting stale :P

Re:An interesting question actually

[Anonymous Coward]

Taste of balls > Taste of Dogfood > Pot Noodle.

And Kryten can walk on water now?

This from Cockroach Mecca?

[ej0c]

What, still no comments on the great Cockroach Invasion which plagued the CMU campus? Where are my fellow Tartans on this?

Pastafarianism

[n3tcat]

Could this be the arrival of the Son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? It was intelligently designed, after all.

It will walk on water...

[mattoo]

..but will it run on linux?

Re:It will walk on water...

[PPH]

..but will it run on linux?

Of course. They tried Windows but it kept sinking in the Blue Swamp Of Death.

Obligatory Futurama Quote

[ari_j]

Fry: (to a robot at a Bot Mitzvah) So, you don't believe in Robot Jesus?

Jewish robot: We believe that he existed, and that he was a very well-built robot, but he was not our Messiah.

hired goons in charge of what's left of US

[Anonymous Coward]

that's right. a small band of greed/fear/ego based murderers, thieves, & professional liars have their evile crooked little fingers on the 'button' right now. they think they have to push the button to cover up their crimes against all of US/humanity.

phewww.

consult with/trust in yOUR creators. 'vote' with (what's left in) yOUR wallets. see you there?

Basilisks are dangerous...

[meringuoid]

... but there are worse things. Cockatrices, for instance. Handle with care. Extreme care.

Yeah ...

[krou]

... but can it turn it into wine?

At least we'll be too drunk to care when they get self-replication. I, for one, *hic* ...

Imperial Units

[Anonymous Coward]

The article uses Imperial Units. Thus it's not science, not even technology.
Just mambo-jumbo trying to look smart.

there'll be plenty of water to 'walk' on

[Anonymous Coward]

we're building a boat that floats on almost anything, & have plans to visit the island of mexico after the big flash. see you there?

oddly enough, the 'word in the image' for this post is "boatyard".

Wow!

[e**(i pi)-1]

Jesus!

Buoyancy...

[Anonymous Coward]

What's wrong with a robot that floats?

Nice robot....

[Blitz22]

This water walking robot will probably be very nice and not shun the prostitute robots or robots that lost parts to "robot leprosy". He might even be able to change 5W-30 into hydraulic fluid. But it's followers will be Skynet.

I'm still waiting for the Car that runs on water

[willki]

The Government, man, they have this car that runs on water.

here lizard lizard lizard

[Anonymous Coward]

A picture (since the .pdf link seems to be down at the moment):

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2006-04-05/04 06plizard-a.jpg

And another link:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_4 40639.html

Robot wars...

[vigmeister]

How about a robot that parts water? Then we can have "BattleBots: Judeo-Christian Wars".

Cheers!

Watercross

[mdsolar]

Seems to me that they could reach their goal faster by mimicking the lizard more closely. Watercross http://www.iwausa.org/ works basically by slapping the water already. Just automate and you are there.
--
Solar power with no installation cost: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Re:Watercross

[mashade]

Good lord! That's the biggest block of blinking text I've seen since '99!

AOL

[NRISecretAgent]

I just got an image of the AOL/AIM guy running across water in all his yellow glory... gah!

No! It should be...

[Gription]

48 61 6C 6C 65 6C 75 6A 61 68

Re:No! It should be...

[Scaba]

I think it would be 01001000011000010110110001101100011001010110110001 110101011010100110000101101000.

Bender: Ahhh, what an awful dream. Ones and zeroes everywhere... and I thought I saw a two.
Fry: Don't worry Bender, there's no such thing as two.

Re:No! It should be...

[ShieldW0lf]

Canadian Loons do this too. They can't take off without speed, so they run across the surface of the lake until they're going fast enough.

I used to sit around watching them when I was a kid. Funny as hell when they're tearing across the lake like the devils on their tail, then they trip over a wave, face plant and disappear.

Re:No! It should be...

[Gription]

I think it would be 01001000011000010110110001101100011001010110110001 110101011010100110000101101000.

Canadian Loons do this too. They can't take off without speed, so they run across the surface of the lake until they're going fast enough.

I used to sit around watching them when I was a kid. Funny as hell when they're tearing across the lake like the devils on their tail, then they trip over a wave, face plant and disappear. Loons speak binary? But they don't have enough MHZ to process it unless they run?

I think you might be a confused loon... (and I don't think you can speak binary no matter how fast you run.

Groan

[Anonymous Coward]

Somebody has to say it:

I, for one, welcome our new water-walking robot overlords.

Now, please someone shoot me.

More Importantly . . .

[SpeedyGonz]

. . . Will it blend?

Re:I'm still waiting for the Car that runs on wate

[thc69]

Oh, I see what you did there...

Sweet Robot Jesus!

[Eli Gottlieb]

I showed this to my robot, and he says he might actually convert from Robot Judaism! Thank you, CMU, you've saved an electronic soul. Err... hard-disk image.

Text

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

Good lord! That's the biggest block of blinking text I've seen since '99!

Indeed. The op-art red text on blue background is pretty retro as well. You just don't see much of the reverse, blinking magenta text on chartreuse background thing any more...thank God.

I for one

[AppahMan]

cannot believe that I beat everone to this!!! I for one would like to welcome our new robot lizard overlords...

Re:I for one

[Zaatxe]

Ha! That's nothing! In Soviet Russia, water walks on YOU!

Hey! I already patented this...

[Mr. Vage]

I have the diagram to prove it. http://www.infovisual.info/05/img_en/054%20Boat.jp g

Researchers Choose Name!

[ninjapiratemonkey]

In a stunning advancement in the basilisk robot development, the researchers have decided to name this new robot the "HOVERCRAFT".

Because rooster eggs are so common?

[blueZ3]

Face it, basilisks (born from a rooster's egg hatched by a serpent) are an endangered species. If Harry Potter kills one, that would definitely spoil things. :-)

which begs the question

[Tmack]

Why does it go across water at all? Why not stay where it was born and raised, rather than pursue questionable gains across the pond? Scientists are so busy wondering whether they can get a robot to walk across water, that they forget to question whether the robot should.

Why did the robot cross the pond?

Tm

Amazing AI

[Anonymous Coward]

Robot aims to walk on water. Sounds like the robot is actually making the decision and not the designers.
After success upon being asked what the robot will do now he responds, "I'm going to Disney World!".

Wha?

[Tarlus]

Robot Aims To Walk On Water

...developing a robot that walks across water... Well, which one is it? Walk or run?

This just in: cool sounding research gets more $!!

[syn1kk]

This just in: cool sounding research gets more money than useful research!!!

Finnally, water travel!

[pinkstuff]

[sarcasm]Finally, human kind will be able to travel across the seas![/sarcasm]

already done: with a car!

[Gunstick]

Ok, it's not a robot, but it drives on water without using any floatation device

yeah, Top Gear! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QBiBcK96Bs

Georges

I wonder...

[Bieeanda]

So this robot's been developed by a guy named Floyd. I wonder if it will want to play Hucka-Bucka-Beanstalk?

info and video of the robot

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably too late to post this, but actual videos and info on the robot:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_jesus_lizard. shtml