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iRobot Introduces Morphing Blob Robot
Aristos Mazer sends word of research out of iRobot on a "chembot," or morphing blob robot, that looks like dough and moves by shifting its sides from solid-like to liquid-like states. This will allow it, in theory and after lots of refinement, to pass through cracks by squeezing. iRobot calls the new technique "jamming." The research project was funded by DARPA. The video clearly shows the early stage the work is in, but when you think about it the possibilities are a little unsettling.
Finally, now we can make "the ball" guard from The Prisoner.
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How we know is more important than what we know.
I *hate* to get into a humans vs robots argument, but seriously, just hire a good maid.. you'll never think robots are close to the same capabilities of humans again.
I wish every "home robot" designer would do this, maybe we'd start getting some robots that are actually capable.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Yeah, totally agree. I can't say that I was amazingly impressed by this at all. Okay, so it's a ball that moves by making bits hard and bits soft. The movement on the thing seemed so incredibly "strugglesome" and getting that thing through a crack? Yeah, right.
Cool, yes, fairly, but lets not have the summary overhype the actual story. It's not a robot. It's a sack of gritty air. Also, there is a ponytail sized bunch of wires hanging out of it. Also, it sort of rolls semi randomly. Also, it was shown moving over a perfectly flat tabletop. Not quite the images of terror I was expecting. Call it how it is.
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The Roomba does two things that I really appreciate: 1. Cleans up under the dinner table and gets all the stuff my kids drop, and 2. cleans the dust way under the bed that breeds dust mites.
No, it doesn't do as well as a regular vacuum. But it's small and does its thing however often you want.
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