Slashdot Mirror
Robots That Bounce on Water
inghamb87 writes "The way water striders walk on water was discovered years ago. The insect uses its long legs to help evenly distribute its tiny body weight. The weight is distributed over a large area so that the fragile skin formed by surface tension supports the bug on the water. However, the ability of water striders to jump onto water without sinking has baffled scientists, until now." If nothing less, you need to see the picture: it's awesome.
I for one welcome our new water-walking robotic overlords.
Did Jesus use the same technology?
If nothing less, you need to see the picture: it was awesome.
There. Fixed that for you.
More
welcome our new water-walking robotic overlords... with some surface-tension reducing soap :) Muahahahahahah!
...already Slashdotted
All my life I've been waiting to see an awesome picture about FRIKKIN ROBOTS THAT BOUNCE on water, and now it's apparently slashdotted! I'm gonna cry now.
P.S. Hey taco if this is just some sick joke, and you gave a busted url, I'll kill you! Robots on water... you don't play around with that!
I got a catholic block.
Site is being destroyed by /. - give us a mirror!
Trackball users will be first against the wall.
But I believe we've had a theory for this for awhile now. In August of 2003, MIT published some information on the subject. Here's a link:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/robostrider.html
Here's some relevant content from that link:
MIT researchers report in the Aug. 7 issue of Nature that they now understand how the insects known as water striders skim effortlessly across the surface of ponds and oceans.
And:
Using mathematics, high-speed photography and a variety of flow visualization techniques, Bush, mathematics graduate student David L. Hu and mechanical engineering graduate student Brian Chan uncovered the true way in which water striders walk on water.
As the insect rests on the surface, the tips of its thin legs create miniscule valleys. It sculls the middle set of its three pairs of legs like oars, causing the water behind those legs to propel it forward as the surface of the valley rebounds like a trampoline. Although the rowing motion does create tiny waves, "the waves do not play a significant role in the momentum transfer necessary for propulsion," the researchers wrote. "The momentum transfer is primarily in the form of subsurface vortices."
I managed to view the site before it went down in flames under the slashdot effect. The picture was cool, but the article left much to be desired:
How big is the robot?
How much does it weigh?
How fast can it move?
How is it controlled?
What is the range of speeds for this that was mentioned in the article?
They mentioned applying it to sampling water quality, but wouldn't that disrupt the surface tension to sample the water right under the robot?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
So Jesus was an insectoid alien or an intergalactic robot? Either way it had to be hard to intelligently design him, or her.
This one is erroneous in at least one way. It suggests that tiny bubbles trapped in hairs on the bug's legs make it float. Tosh! The bubbles are too small to make it boyant. What the bubbles do is increase the surface area which, in turn, increases the amount of surface tension "skin" that the bug walks on and therefore the carrying capacity.
As most fly fishermen would tell you, surface tension is far stronger than you'd think. Hatching bugs struggle to get through the surface tension which keeps them under the surface. Once they break through they are able to sit and walk quite easily.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
If nothing less, you need to see the picture: it's awesome.
If you're one of the four people who got to see the picture before it became Slashdotted....
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
The original article link is down, so can't tell if its old news, but I remember reading a similar article on slashdot earlier about the 'baffling' mystery of water striders being solved?
MIT Robot Walks On Water
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/26/0141229/
Here is the cached image.
Here's the Telegraph story linked in the blog entry we just hosed:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/07/sciwater107.xml
Yes, it's dated July 12, 2007. Yes, you must be new here.
Coral Cache got it.
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com.nyud.net/?p=592
Never put a line like this in a /. summary. Do you want Congress to pass a law classifying /. as some kind of cyber-terror weapon? You can almost see smoke coming out of the ground around these poor bastards' data center.
which is likely what we'll be coming across, as opposed to water, the way things are going. will the 'robots' be able to 'bounce' on acidic goop?
corepirate nazi execrable costs outweigh benefits
(Score:-)mynuts won, the king is a fink)
by ourselves on everyday 24/7
as there are no benefits, just more&more death/debt & disruption.
fortunately there's an 'army' of light bringers, coming yOUR way
do not be afraid/dismayed, it is the way it was meant to be.
the little ones/innocents must/will be protected.
after the big flash, ALL of yOUR imaginary 'borders' may blur a bit?
for each of the creators' innocents harmed (in any way), there is a debt that must/will be repaid by you/us, as the perpetrators/minions of unprecedented evile, will not be available.
all is not lost/forgotten/forgiven.
no need to fret (unless you're associated/joined at the hype with, unprecedented evile), it's all just a part of the creators' wwwildly popular, newclear powered, planet/population rescue initiative/mandate.
or, is it (literally) ground hog (as in dead meat) day, again? many of US are obviously not interested in/aware of how we appear (which is whoreabull) from the other side of the 'lens', or even from across the oceans.
vote with (what's left in) yOUR wallet. help bring an end to unprecedented evile's manifestation through yOUR owned felonious corepirate nazi glowbull warmongering execrable.
some of US should consider ourselves very fortunate to be among those scheduled to survive after the big flash/implementation of the creators' wwwildly popular planet/population rescue initiative/mandate.
it's right in the manual, 'world without end', etc....
as we all ?know?, change is inevitable, & denying/ignoring gravity, logic, morality, etc..., is only possible, on a temporary basis.
concern about the course of events that will occur should the life0cidal execrable fail to be intervened upon is in order.
'do not be dismayed' (also from the manual). however, it's ok/recommended, to not attempt to live under/accept, fauxking nazi felon greed/fear/ego based pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking hypenosys.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators. providing more than enough of everything for everyone (without any distracting/spiritdead personal gain motives), whilst badtolling unprecedented evile, using an unlimited supply of newclear power, since/until forever. see you there?
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
http://freedomsforums.com/viewtopic,p,1696.html
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
I put the picture at: http://www.nologic.us/img/waterbug.jpg
Trackball users will be first against the wall.
Congrats you just violated the copyright on that image and made your PC subject to random $eizure and $elling off http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/10/1522241.
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
Mirror: http://freedomsforums.com/viewtopic,p,1696.html
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
(*) It will be fought by entrenched fishing interests
The "robot" spreads its weight out using the whole length of its legs in contact with the water. That is nothing like a water strider.
A water strider walks on the **ends** of its legs (feet, if you will). For a far better description see http://www.livescience.com/animals/041103_water_strider.html.
The only similarity is that they both use surface tension.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Coral Cache seems to have a mirror of the image.
http://aycu05.webshots.com.nyud.net:8090/image/34684/2000802596361707173_rs.jpg
The article also links to this one, which has a different water walking robot overlord picture.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/07/sciwater107.xml
Anyone got a mirror for the mirror?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I remember going to a conference presentation by John Bush back in 2005 which detailed the physics behind water striders. His presentation was very good, and the video footage he presented was absolutely fantastic (see here and here). I think the work referenced in the main article isn't quite as groundbreaking as they'd have you believe. There has been quite a lot of work in this area over the last five years.
Oh, the laughter of the water striders... see you in a million years, suckers!
I got through, and uploaded it to imageshack in case it goes down again or I was just lucky in getting through.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6365/slashdottedqf9.jpg
do {print "Mini-Geek Rules!\n";}
until ($TheEndOfTheWorld);
Well, google cache doesn't hold the copyright.
While the cache excuse might work, it also means the cache has to stop distribution whenever the original site wishes to end distribution (exercising their rights).
This is bad especially for the wayback machine since right now they operate in a legal hole (not a loophole at all).
IMHO IANAL INSOTSC
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
I hunted for the video. In my search I came upon the original site, not the article talking about the site.
http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterstrider/
Here is the actual project including how it works (Pizo) photos of both prototypes, the light and dark one, and detail on the robotics in it.
It includes 3 videos including the walking on water video.
The truth shall set you free!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
well, bounce my shiny metal ass
I wonder how they control the the speed at which they hit the water? Wings? Do they use their legs as shock absorbers?
That picture is not actually from the new research, it is from old work at Carnegie-Mellon. Here is a bigger version:
http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterstrider/STRIDE_water_strider_big.jpg
It is part of the work of the NanoRobotics Labaratory at CMU.
Wouldn't a little boat be just as efficient (if not more) without all of the robot research.
MOD PARENT UP!!! It is NOT a troll. Disgusting moderation system.
I suppose Slashdot editors have played video games instead of learning how the world works. Live in a fantasy world, throw away your life.
Those powers are passed down from the mother via midichlorian DNA.
Modern scorpions do not have a fixed claw-to-body ratio. Non-poisonous scorpions tend to have larger more powerful claws, sometimes by a factor of 3 or more. Using modern claw to body ratios would give a size of somewhere between approx 1.5 and 5 metres. Of course that assumes that claw-to-body ratios have been constant over time.
One just needs to look at the fiddler crab to see how stupid it is to make claw-to-body comparisons and such assumptions. The fiddler crab has two different size claws, one approximately the width of the crab and the smaller one approx 20% the width of the crab.
Still, the giant scorpion is far less contrived than many paneontological "discoveries". You often see beautifully detailed drawings and descriptions of animals with the only physical evidence being a tooth fragment.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
That picture is really bad ass. It's a shame that everything cool, technologically speaking, automatically has a military purpose for spying.
Now all we need is worm-like robots that burrow through the earth. And of course earwhig robots that burrow into your ear, and tick robots that attach to your skin and suck your blood. Cock roach robots won't need to do anything except run around and freak people out because they're so icky. Then, without a shot being fired, hasta la vista Sarah Conner.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
The little address line icon is a pot leaf at that site. So maybe that is how it walks on water, it just gets a little elevated.
... can they carry lasers?
Have gnu, will travel.
Come on! The first thing I thought of was 'cool! we can do Rover's on Europe or Titan where we have liquid gas!
I see more use for this in space than here. A spy robot that walks on liquid? I'd love to see pictures from Titan where it walks out over the liquid air.
And I'd have to say that such a robot would be a true all terrain robot...it could zip around the coast lines looking for life.
"Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain
Am I the only insensitive clod who read the names of the research team leaders and thought "Well, Duck Gyu too!"
Wait 'til I get this out on the 'hooch!
Hey y'all! Watch this!
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Last week, Oak Ridge announced development of a material that is virtually unwettable, a nanoetched powder that acts on surface tension and can be applied as a coating to almost any surface. A boat with a coated hull would become a water strider - one continuous stride. Much cooler news than this article.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
The real question, can it water ski?