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Robot Composed of "Catoms" Can Assume Any Form
philetus writes "An article in New Scientist describes a robotic system composed of swarms of electromagnetic modules capable of assuming almost any form that is being developed by the Claytronics Group at Carnegie Mellon. 'The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together. Seth Goldstein, who leads the research project at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in the US, admits this is still a distant prospect. However, his team is using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or "claytronic", robots, which they are testing on small groups of more primitive, pocket-sized machines.'"
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I suggest the tag "Prey", for all of you Michael Crichton fans.
Transformers! Robots in disguise!
Emergence is a lovely thing.
Sounds like the Replicators from the "Stargate" TV series(es).
Any relation to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_fog utility foglets?
Oh my goodness, those people obviously never watched stargate! They're making replicators! They are swarms of robots that can assume any form. The only way to stop them is for MacGuyver to stick his head in some ancient machine to gain their knowledge. Then he'll develope a super weapon that looks like a BFG3000 that will shoot waves at them causing them to disassociate with each other and fall to the ground like a pile of leggos. But that's only enough to stop a few of them, the REAL solution is to link all the stargates together at once (anyone seen baal?) and then send said 'waves of magical energy' through the one closest to T'ealc.
Someone shoot them before they doom us all!!!
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
In Soviet Slashdot, tired meme jokes are in before YOU!
...The best part of being a Super Villian is the Doomsday devices!
Well, at least it can only form sharp, stabbing weapons. I just hope they're creating another robot to save us from it.
lameness filter fodder here
Terminator II here we come!
Oh Hai! I haz a covalent bond?
Herds of tiny cat robots? Cool - that'll go well with the Evil Laugh and the Monocle!
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
OK, now that's funny!
Bisexuals could have a robotic, hermaphroditic sex partner.
Yeah, I know, I'm a sick puppy.....
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
Obviously Longcat created the universe using Catoms only for it to be corrupted by the evil Tacgnol.
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Anyone that has read Alistair Reynold's Revelation Ark sees a disaster coming with this little buggers.
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Don't welcome these overlords. We can cut that joke already don't we? I mean, it was fun at the beginning but not anymore.
Thanks
T-1000 Cat is watching you masturbate! >.
As the tags to this story say, those are LOLcatoms.
Not the same thing at all, really.
Wha... "claytronic" robots?
I never foresaw that the machines that take over the world in the future would look like Gumby...
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Surely it would be a visually impressive sight. Other then that though, it would be worthless. The AI is simply not there to make it as we might think..
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
Just finishing the book "Plague Year", in which a cancer cure prototype made up of nano-machine instead become a self-replicating flesh eater. Take this article, and the earlier one about nano-tubes with cancer cures and...dang, I think I might be reading a book of prophecy. And thus ends another species...
One of the coolest potential applications of this is for Holographic-type communication. Perhaps not the 3D light-type display envisioned by Star-Wars and the like, but these could potentially mimic the form of someone for the purposes of communication. Also, games!
I will destroy the world unless you pay me $1,000,000^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h0,000,000^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h $10 billion dollars.
Fight Spammers!
Unfortunately they'll only be able to make one incredibly small movement ever 6 hours or so.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
This sounds a lot like the cellular morphing robot technology introduced in Isaac Asimov's Robot City (which predates Stargate by one or two decades, I believe).
This sounds like the clarketech* that the Mercedes-Benz SilverFlow concept has been waiting for. At the 2057 Robocar Design Challenge in Los Angeles last year (wherein car manufacturers touted concepts for cars 50 years from now), Mercedes showed off "SilverFlow", a shape-changing car that melts into a pool of liquid metal when not in use. The vehicle's shape would be tailored for different usage scenarios through programming, and the entire concept revolves around micro-particles that combine in varied ways. But is this really feasible though? I suppose that it's within the realms of possibility, but are there any serious deal-breakers that could derail this vision? Any thoughts?
*From Arthur C. Clarke's well-known aphorism about sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic, "clarketech" refers to tech so advanced that we don't know as yet how it would work. Love the term.
Invisible force!
The evidence from living systems is that you get more success designing several specialized but simple and robust systems than one generalized but complex and fragile system.
Come to think of it, this is the lesson most people seem to have drawn about robotics, too. Maybe even for electronics, inasmuch as we're increasingly seeing people get a collection of specialized consumer electronics (MP3 player, PDA or smart phone) rather than try to program their microcomputer to do it all.
Apparently it's so dazzling a prospect constructing a system that can Do Anything that folks routinely overlook the fact that in the real world the ability to Do Anything slowly, unreliably and expensively loses routinely to a small collection of abilities to Do Something quickly, reliably, and cheaply.
Paranoia,bad quotes, lazy humor, bad tagging, trolling,THEN sex, and finally, reading the article....
I'm sure they weren't stupid enough to involve e. coli in the manufacturing process......
Actually, this might be better than Lego. *drool* When can I buy it in stores?
The Replicator Overlords maybe powerful, But SID 6.7 can at least tell you a joke before you die.
At least everyone will already know how to deal with them if they go bonkers. All you need to do is have your bodyguard T-101 freeze them with liquid nitrogen, shatter them, and then drop them into a vat of molten steel. What could be easier?
How in the hell do they expect to build anything out of Catoms? Ever try to herd Cats? Trying to build anything orderly out of them would be impossible.
Until they can replicate Scarlet Johanson or Natalie Portman, it sounds pretty worthless to me.
Terminator II here we come!
Well, we'd need two types of nanobots, or give them a double function: One type can bend and expand like a muscle cell to provide mobility. The other type needs to function as a skeleton (exo or endo, you choose).
How will you supply the energy to nanobots? And how is that energy going to be transmitted to different parts of the body? How will it be stored? And if it's in the form of liquid, you'll need blood vessels too. Also, if the design of the form that you're going to emulate isn't well thought, you could end up wasting LOTS of energy in moving the robot (and guess where that energy will go? Then we come to the subject of overheat prevention. You're gonna need a very good ventilation system. And the list could go on and on...
Is Futile!
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
...and I don wanna cheezburgr I wanna PIZZA to nom nom nom and thenna snooze! ummkaythnxbai
They're obviously "Trillions".
of Clayfighters? That was an awesome game :)
Robot Composed of "Catoms" Can Assume Any Form Composed of "Catoms" Can "Catoms" Cat ... Mrowl :3
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/
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Disclaimer: Yes, the human brain is specialized, but much less than that of most animals.
Medium cat is MEDIUM.
Can we just give up the game, please? This is obviously an advance introduction of the replicator technology gathered from the off-world explorations of our "stargate" program. Yes, just like SG-1 which was produced to created "plausible deniability" in case information leaked.
Yes, I realize that was a plot on one of the shows -- creating a show about the "real" stargate program, but that plotline was only created to create "plausible deniability" in case information about the real effort to create plausible deniability was ever leaked.
And do I even need to mention that doing replicator research on Earth is a really bad idea. It isn't even that great of an idea if you do it off-world. Seriously, entire civilizations have been destroyed messing with this stuff.
aka "The Reproductive System" ... I used to think it was a funny book until I saw this. His wasn't the first use of this idea but it's still my favorite.
Some folks I know had encounters with a similar device, you might learn from their...adventures. Fortunately I was able to combat the devices quite easily. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Stargate). Just thought I'd let you guys know.
-Rodney McKay
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Now I can finally punch people in the face over the phone!
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
This could allow new kinds of wheels - I'm thinking of the smartwheels from Snow Crash. Depending on how fast the stuff moves one could even coat the entire underside of a car in it and have the car move by rippling it to the back, being in contact with the ground across the entire floor. It would essentially work like a combination between Sargeant Schlock and The Luggage.
(Three entirely different pop culture references in one post. Way to go making myself ununderstandable...)
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
I worked on this with Seth through Prof. Rudich's Andrew's leap program last summer. Interesting stuff. Sure, what my group and I were working on wasn't exactly nanotechnology (in fact, we were working with balloon-based models over 1m cubed, one of which I still have), but hopefully some of the data that was collected will ultimately help produce catoms on a more useful scale. Weather I'll see catoms in my life is debatable, but it's still an interesting field to explore.
-jX
Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
... which involved a shape-shifting cyborg sex-tox that had been retro-fitted reprogrammed with combat AI and arms and was composed of smart dust that could formed an indefinite amount of shapes around a centralized core CPU. She was a piece of ass that could kick ass.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
Will the micro-bots have micro-batteries? What happens when they run out?
Cation sez:
I gaev u electron.
Wut moar u wants?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWcEgRQVJo0&feature=related
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But, I also want sharks with laser beams.
*Picks up his sandwich of the plate and takes a bite*
*billions of microscopic robots begin to alter their form breaking away from the shape of a sandwich*
*they cover his face in a matter of milliseconds, his body writhing in pain as he falls backwards on his chair kicking and screaming*
*carefully they dissect him atom by atom and build more of themselves, retaining his form*
*he goes back to work as if nothing happened and lays a piece of gum still in the wrapper on the table*
who will be next.
ya good idea guys.... wait till this falls into the wrong hands
I don't think I'd want to be made out of these nanobots. Just imagine what it would be like to lose an arm in mid-handshake.
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
No comments about the porn possibilities? Is this Slashdot?
It ok, one thing will save us all from the onslaught of terminator style robots. Batteries not included, we cant even make independent walking robots that don't require external power to last for any real amount of time. Our crappy battery technology will save us all.
As if people didn't have enough on their plates worrying about the rats and boa constrictors coming up their toilets.
As robots come to pervade our society, legal issues will arise. Legal agreements will be one tool for regulating robot bad behavior or unwanted spying.
Benjamin Wright, Dallas, Texas, benjaminwright.us
Transformerrrrs...
"...he research project at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in the US..." - I am very glad that the poster clarified which Pittsburgh CMU was in. The uninformed person, who might not have known where CMU was located and would therefore have to reason out whether this was a Pittsburgh in the USA, the one in Japan, in Mali, or the one in Germany (The German city is a suburb of Cheeseburgh)
The question is, which Pittsburgh is it located in, in the US?
...Summer Glau, I for one welcome our new hottie killbot overlords.
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