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.'"

Comments

By Any Other Name

[RobertNotBob]

I, for one, welcome our new replicator Overlords.

Re:By Any Other Name

[Pollardito]

...but i suggest to our future overlords that Voltronic is a much snappier name than claytronic

Re:By Any Other Name

[sempernoctis]

I do feel compelled to note that every time something like this is developed in a movie or TV show, it ends up nearly killing everyone within the scope of the show. Stargate. Star Trek. Terminators 2 & 3. Hell, even Dr. Who had to stop them in the first season of the new series.

Re:By Any Other Name

[G-funk]

And of all slashdot stories, *this* doesn't have "whatcouldgowrong"....

Re:By Any Other Name

[Marcos Eliziario]

Doomed? You, maybe.
Me, being a trusted slashdot personality, am sure our new overlords will see how convenient to have someone like me at their side.
I, for one, welcome our new t1000 overlords! Be their reign long and fruitful!

Tag

[snl2587]

I suggest the tag "Prey", for all of you Michael Crichton fans.

Obvious comment

[rakuen]

Transformers! Robots in disguise!

Re:Obvious comment

[cayenne8]

Maybe this is a prototype for the liquid metal T2000??

Any relation?

[Debello]

Any relation to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_fog utility foglets?

Replicators!!!

[alta]

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!!!

Re:Replicators!!!

[wizardforce]

either that or they end up using our "inferior" alloys instead of those fancy asguard alloys that don't rust. there's a reason they didn't compromise the hull integrity of that nuclear sub or the asguard ships. They are vulnerable to heat and apparently anything that damages the alloys they've used to make themselves out of.

Re:Replicators!!!

[wizardforce]

it's about time someone had that point straight- milkyway replicators != Pegasus replicators! the first set basically destroyed the civilization that created reese who created the original replicators as "toys". the pegasus replicators however were created by the ancients to fight the wraith, later the ancients destroyed most but not all of their creation leaving the last surviving replicators to rebuild their "civilization" modeled after the ancients themselves with the exception being that they couldn't modify their own code [damned proprietary software!] and had a "nasty temper" rivaling that of the wraith. here's a more in depth explaination:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Stargate)

Re:Awe gee-whiz...

[eln]

In Soviet Slashdot, tired meme jokes are in before YOU!

And that's why...

[martinQblank]

...The best part of being a Super Villian is the Doomsday devices!

Terminator II here we come!

[Jtmoney528]

Terminator II here we come!

Catoms?

[StCredZero]

Oh Hai! I haz a covalent bond?

Re:Catoms?

[Dirtside]

Nooo! Iz MAI lectron shell. I no share lectrons wit u.

Re:Catoms?

[MP3Chuck]

Noooo, dey be sharin' mah electrons!

Re:Catoms?

[CptNerd]

DO NOT WANT!

Herds of Cat Robots! Cool!

[billstewart]

Herds of tiny cat robots? Cool - that'll go well with the Evil Laugh and the Monocle!

Multi Meme Heaven

[sam_paris]

T-1000 Cat is watching you masturbate! >.

pokey pokey

[Stanistani]

Wha... "claytronic" robots?

I never foresaw that the machines that take over the world in the future would look like Gumby...

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[4D6963]

OK, now that's funny!

No it's not! You want funny? Here's funny : There's two hookers in a lift. One goes, "It smells like cum in here". The other one replies, "Oops sorry I just farted".

Tada! Mod points please...

Holographic Video, Batman!

[commisaro]

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!

Re:Holographic Video, Batman!

[ANCOVA]

I can't believe you didn't mention anything sex related.

I want...

[www.sorehands.com]

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.

Claymation

[Dynedain]

Unfortunately they'll only be able to make one incredibly small movement ever 6 hours or so.

Mercedes-Benz SilverFlow

[jamrock]

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.

Re:Mercedes-Benz SilverFlow

[amRadioHed]

Mercedes showed off "SilverFlow", a shape-changing car that melts into a pool of liquid metal when not in use. I used to have a Chevy that sorta did that. I mean not the shape-changing thing, but it did form a big pool of liquid wherever I parked it.

Electromagnetic modules?

[Anonymous Coward]

Invisible force!

Re:Oh no, it's the Replicators!

[mabhatter654]

Asgard replicators or Ancient replicators?

As long as they evolve into an evil robot Sam Carter!

In your dreams...

[Spy der Mann]

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...

Re:Plague...

[colmore]

Whenever the self-directed technological apocalypse comes, be it army of soldier bots, self-aware ICBM control systems, nanocancer, servant droid rebellion, a world banking AI (that one is mine), or whatever, there's one thing we will not be able to say

and that is "we didn't see this coming."

Sci-fi has been predicting this for seventy years, and I'm starting to really believe that it might be on the list with satellites and lasers of stuff that's actually going to happen in our lifetimes.

I gaev u electron

[davidwr]

Cation sez:

I gaev u electron.

Wut moar u wants?