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Robotic Penguins
Corporate Troll writes "Robotic penguins were unveiled by German engineering firm Festo this week. Using their flippers, the mechanical penguins (video) can paddle through water just like real ones, while larger helium-filled designs can "swim" through the air. The penguins are on show at the Hannover Messe Trade Exhibition in Germany.
Each penguin carries 3D sonar which is used to monitor its surroundings and avoid collisions with walls or other penguins."
I hope these penguins don't start hassling me about Linux.
I've tried it- it was a pain in the ass. Leave me alone!
...Does is run linux?
(We all knew this was going to be asked!)
I for one would like to welcome our mechanical delphinid overlords.
(frickin' laser sold separately).
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I am still relatively young and without children..but is the purpose here that when we systematically destroy actual penguins' habitat I can still show my kid this robot and say "Well, they used to swim kind of like that"....
while larger helium-filled designs can "swim" through the air.
It's called a blimp.
Just callin' it like I see it.
Which distro do they run?
Festo makes the best power woodworking tools I've ever seen.
Obviously The Penguin is behind this
Generally it's rare for me to see a job I'm truly envious of but those were some of the coolest projects I have ever seen, and to be paid to do that..
When did Slashdot start doing images in non-extended summaries? Talk about a leap into the future.
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
So when does the whale-shaped space probe come?
Fuck Beta
...a Beowulf cluster of these.
Have gnu, will travel.
while larger helium-filled designs can "swim" through the air...
...Run along now."
WTF?
Army Guy: "Hey kids, see the cute penguin?!"
Youngster: "But, mister, why is it flying around, shooting lasers out of its eyes at those Muslims?!"
Army Guy: "Penguins do that sometimes!
Hey, sweet, they have fickin' laser beams for eyes ^_^
"I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist"
I'm so disappointed! We haven't had a story about Stallman for ages now!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
So like the way the UAV will probably replace (or mostly replace) the manned plane. Will these 'UWV'replaced manned subs?
I wish to extend a warm welcome to our new robotic penguin overlords
So like the way the UAV will probably replace (or mostly replace) the manned plane. Will these 'UWV'replaced manned subs?
Probably not, since water readily absorbs radio waves.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Robotic Penguins? Skip the desktop -- 2009 will be the year of the Linux Apocalypse.
I get the sneaking suspicion that Disney is going to buy a whole fleet of these things and create a Happy Feet show at Disney World.
An entire army of dancing robot penguins with glowing eyes is the stuff nightmares are made of. Thanks, Germany!
-
3...2...1...
(Or "Robot Penguin Overlord" Jokes.)
-David
In the video, when the pengiun is facing off with the diver, did I see it mouth "Sarah Connor?"?
I wish I could think of a witty Sig. Sigh!
No radio waves required, they're _fully automated_ attack penguins.
Just make sure they know who's who.
I think it is safe to say that these will never ever take over the Arctic.
Too Complicated.
I, for one, welcome our new robotic tux overlords =D
Trying to install linux on my microwave, but keep getting a kernel panic...
The bear cavalry is well and truly fucked.
They also have this incredibly graceful flying squid: http://www.festo.com/cms/de_de/5890_6299.htm
A lot of lives would be saved...
In the USA the fuckers would carry lazorz
Forget about throwing chairs. With his penguin Zeppelins he'll be able to drop desks and filing cabinets on his foes.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
These are "penguin shaped".
That key innovation went right over your head, didn't it?
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
The head (almost an arm) movement of the artificial penguin is extraordinary - a very elegant design. It must be cheaper, lighter and more robust than a "normal/classic" jointed arm.
A picture is worth exactly 1024 words.
Paddling is drag-based propulsion (i.e. the animal uses the drag from moving a paddle in the opposite direction to produce thrust in the direction they are moving). Paddling is not very efficient because it requires a recovery phase to reset the paddle. This is how most quadrupeds, such as muskrats, polar bears, even humans, swim.
Penguins use lift-based propulsion from pectoral oscillation, or literally flapping their wings, just like the birds that they are. They generate thrust from the forward component of the lift produced by their wings depending on the angle of attack. This is much more efficient, as there is no recovery phase and so thrust can be produced almost constantly. This is how penguins (both real and the robots) and sea lions swim. Seals, whales, and dolphins use the same type of propulsion, but use their flukes or rear flippers instead of their pectoral flippers.
Just to be pedantic, but for some reason, the idea of penguins paddling bothers me. :-/
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Anyone else noticed the developers were using Mac OS on what looks like a PC? Come on Apple sue them! What are you waiting for?
Robostallman ?
Why ? Just why ?
Welcome our Robotic Penguin Overlords
Did the helium ones remind anyone else of the gunships from HalfLife 2?
Are the penguins pwn4bl3? Imagine tens or hundreds of thousands of infected penguins in a bot-net attacking en masse, the horror, the horror..
Video from The BBC
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I get the sneaking suspicion that Disney is going to buy a whole fleet of these things and create a Happy Feet show at Disney World.
Not all G- or PG-rated animated films with talking animals are produced or published by The Walt Disney Company. March of the Penguins was distributed by Warner. Happy Feet was also Warner. Surf's Up was Columbia. What was Disney's penguin movie called?
That means odds are you can't find your way out of your parents basement to find a female that's willing to procreate with you in the first place. So I wouldn't worry about having to explain such things to your "children".
Won't sharks just eat them, or at least mangle them before realizing "not food"?
"Linus Torvalds, the original creator of Linux (a popular operating system kernel)" - by davidphogan74 (623610) on Thursday April 23, @03:04AM (#27683871 Homepage
It's funny how folks never seem to note that it was NOT "done from scratch", but, instead, let's state the actual truth for once: The truth that Linux was actually built up off of MINIX foundations!
(See subject-line, because it has the extension to it it needs, to tell the actual truth here, for once).
People say "Microsoft steals ideas", which IS true... but then again?? So does Linux, & the proof of that's from its very foundations/underpinnings.
(That said? Well - I guess the old adage is true, that "good artists copy, great artists steal".)
All your penguins are belong to us!
Is Germany really so boring that the only things that these guys can do to entertain themselves is by building bionic octopii, robotic jellyfish and flying robotic penguins?
I can see the bionic octopii and flying robotic penguins but robotic jellyfish?? Is there, like, a need for those?
Did the German ISPs block all the scat-porn websites or something?
Though with inflation being what it is, and the American dollar increasingly valueless relative to more stable economies...$6 Million dollars doesn't buy what it used to.
In any case, I always knew penguins would rule the Earth.
Skot Nelson music is my saviour / i was maimed by rock and roll
Sequel to The Tuxedo: Jackie Chan faces off against a killer robotic penguin!
Do either of them run Linux?
I usually ignore trolls, but this one does need a response.
No Minix code in Linux Ever -- More Evidence
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090419181306570
Someone call Michael Keaton.
Penguinator... So when is Judgement Day?
Sure, sure... how about this:
----
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux#MINIX
"In 1991 while attending the University of Helsinki, Torvalds began to work on a non-commercial replacement for MINIX,[13] which would eventually become the Linux kernel.
Linux was dependent on the MINIX user space at first. With code from the GNU system freely available, it was advantageous if this could be used with the fledgling OS"
----
Now, IF you code? Tell us how hard it is to do the same thing a variety of ways, especially in C/C++? Not TOO hard, & even easier to "bastardize" your own code to do so!
So, that all 'said & aside'? Once more - "Good artists COPY, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL!" (period).
alive need is some more active sonar sources to really screw their world up. Can we make several 100K of these and let them loose in the oceans of the world, dolphins and whales have it too easy these days, this should start driving them on shore enmasse....
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I for one Welcome our Robotic Penguin Underlords