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Remote Control Robotic Snakes
0xdeaddeaf writes "Check out this site on remote controlled robtoic snakes from Dr. Gavin Miller. He's been working on a realistic moving robotic snake for a number of years and has posted several videos of his prototypes that span from S1 in 1987 to S5 in 1999. The snakes are self contained with onboard computer, battries, receiver, and locomotion system. The video of S3 shows they can move like sidewinders and S5 does indeed look extremely realistic. Put a skin on these things and there is no doubt you fool a lot of people if the motors are quiet. The New Scientist has an additional
article that explains how their movement is performed. "
Look here.
Do I even *need* to make this reference?
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Those wern't mechnical. I thought they were GE'ed.
No, wait...maybe they were mechanical...they had SN#s on em right?
Could someone that doesn't have a cold clear this up for me?
A real snake applies force on the bumps and imperfections of the surface it's moving on. Except for sidewinders and large constrictors, most snakes can't progress at all on perfectly flat surfaces. They have to brace themselves in a couple different places then strategically apply shearing forces on these braces to move forward. Fortunatly for these snakes flat surfaces are extremely rare in nature (ice is the only one that comes to mind, and if a snake's on that it's got bigger problems).
The only snakes that can move by gripping with their scales are the large constrictors. This is because those snakes are so big that for them there are more relatively flat surfaces than for smaller snakes.
flying cars? check this out!
-Wolfgang Spangler
Our androids will be dreaming of electric sheep any moment now.
Are they REALLY advances in robotics? Or is it just that things that have been around for a long time are finally economical/desirable to sell to the public?
:-) )
"Electronic dog" is only a term, not a reflection of reality. Would you mistake AIBO for a real dog? Or a robotic snake for a real snake? (That one's more likely, since a snake mostly moves and slithers, but I bet it still couldn't survive like a real snake does.) Is it REALLY that sophisticated?
Heck, maybe the answer to my question is "yes", but the importent point here is that there is a long, long way between robotic limbs directly interfacing with humans and a snake that moves (not breaths, not exists self-sufficiently, not thinks, just moves) in the same fashion as a real snake.
So, to answer your questions, we are still a long way from prothetic limbs.
(Unless you don't mind controlling a limb with three motors (manipulating each motor directly) and having no direct feedback, not to mention having the strength of a three-year old child and no reliability. What do you even mean by "prosthetic"? Indistinguishable replacement? Or does Captain Hook have a prosthetic?
I have a snake mate. One time I gave it some beer and and it started to sliver that way and this way like it was drunk.
Yeah...amazing tech. What the heck else would we do with "robtoic snakes"? (sic) I mean this took a lot of work, but do we really need robot forms of life? I think we should just be satisfied with natural animals. The quicker we build robot forms of it all, the sooner we all become satiated by the novelty of it, and take for granted all the complexity of actual snakes. I mean...Noah didn't nanoassemble 2 of each animal on the ark.
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
I wonder where I can put the memory stick?
Snake movement is actually performed by a wide variety of motions, depending on terrain and speed requirements. The classical "winding" movement is accomplished with the shearing forces of angled coils, as you say. They also have the option of very slow movement on smooth, low-friction terrain by rippling the scales on the undersides of their bodies. Typically, though, snakes will use natural objects or deformations on tough terrain. The ability of the snake to focus tremendous strength and precision on a single loop of its body is amazing. Moreover, with a single strong hold the arboreal snake can typically extend more than 75% of its total length into mid-air in search of a second hold. The really critical thing, I think, is that its "limbs" aren't jointed; they're continuous articulated limbs that can put controlled pressure on every point of contact, and the snake makes full use of that fact. My 6-foot reticulated python can put 5 feet of its body into the air searching for an escape route, and with a minor purchase on the lid of her cage, can then proceed to lift her whole body up and out. I've frequently seen snakes use a form of movement that involves pinching a large coil between two obstacles and then flexing the muscles to form a chimney stop. Then it hoists the rest of its body over the stop and repeats the movement with another coil. Snake movement is absolutely remarkable. MJP
Don't try that "protecting the children" shit you people use to keep the tits and bad words off my TV. --Seanbaby
Damn! I've been working on a snake robot for ages, to enter some time into the "Robot Wars" televised robotic battle tournament we have here in the UK.
This guy's way further along than me, software and hardware wise. Although, the hardware is not the killer. It's the control software/firmware (I've been using PICs - I think I need to move onto something more powerful) that's the hard part. My approach has been to put a PIC in every second segment, and try to code in emergent whole-robot behaviour... Not a hope, I guess. NB. the robots in "Robot Wars" are still remote controlled, but controlling a snake body is nigh-on impossible without some autonomy in the robot, at least I think so. I'm also looking into a caltrop-robot made up of 4 short snakes that can lock rigid, and a dodecahedral design (both only on paper). I haven't put together a website yet, but I jsut thought that comment might make an interesting starting point for "alternative" i.e. not wheeled robot discussions.
Quick irksome comment: would you believe that I brought up robot snakes in a rec.arts.sf.* group on Usenet (an author was looking for infantry replacements) and nobody picked up on it at all. Must have been too 'unrealistic' for the fan-boys. Bah.
Yeah, Blade Runner was the first thing i thought of when i saw this.
I'm pretty sure that the snake (and the owl) in Blade Runner were genetically engineered "replicants" since it would make more sense dramatically; the serial number on the snake scale was probably more fiction than science. Then again, there were the "toys" in the apartment which presumably were mechanically engineered, not biologically.
Oh, the horror if those little men were thinking biological creatures rather than mindless automitons ("Now, just sit very still when you're not needed to caper and entertain"). Shiver...
In Indiana it is illegal to make a monkey smoke a cigarette.
Nope. Everything in Bladerunner except some of the Tyrell engineer's play-toys were GE. Remember when Roy was asking about ways to extend his lifespan from Tyrell? It was all about genetics and cell biology. Even though the snakes were GE'd they still weren't "real" (just what society thought of the replicant humans - that was one of the moral dilemmas) thus "natural" animals are rare and expensive. Respectfully, Kevin Christie kwchri@wm.edu
Bart: Not all of them. Some of them are just robots filled with venom.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
-- H. L. Mencken
That's even better than my friend's wedding where I was best man. I held the bride's ring in my mouth until the minister asked for it. Wasn't as fun as I thought it would be though, I almost swallowed it several times while trying not to laugh at how clever I was.
...get a login and start accumulating some moderator karma. Then you can be a moderator retard, instead of an AC retard.
------ "Darn floor. Big bite." (Koko the gorilla's best attempt at explaining the experience of an earthquake.)
who would win? AIBO or the snake? Guess now Sony will now have to build a robotic mongoose to complete the food chain.
I think people are associating snakes with being sneaky and therefore good for spying. This is completely wrong of course. Snakes are more evil than sneaky. You don't want everyone screaming and running away from your camera. When I was a kid here in Alabama, our favorite summer evening pastime (besides ****ing our sisters and cousins) was to drag an old bicycle inner tube across the road with fishing wire to make cars think it was a snake. Imagine the fun we could have had with this!
You didn't read the article, did you? Snake motion is vastly easier (and cheaper) to implement than walking. What does this have to do with anything? Answer: better robot explorers for other planets. Remeber how the Sojourner rover got stuck a few times? This type of robot would be very useful in space/inhospitable terrains.
One of these would be especially nice to send into a damaged nuclear reactor to figure out what the hell went wrong. There are many more things I can think of, but I have to get back to work.
I'll bet that these will be used for survillence. Can you just see it?
guard #1: Did you hear that?
guard #2: Something over there I think.
guard #1: Ah, I see it. Just a garter snake.
leave it out in the sun ....
It seems as though robotics are advancing REALLY fast right now. Electronic dogs, snakes, more on the way. With all of these advances, how far are we from having cybernetic limbs? Put together these robotics with the story of the brain interfacing computer, I don't see it far off before we see brain controlled robotic prosthetics (sp?). Anyone out there in slashdot know if these are being developed, and if so, how far off are they?
"Out, OUT! You demons of STUPIDITY!" - Dogbert
I don't think I really want to see 20 synchronized snakes - my mind just isn't ready for that yet...
There's a mirror of two pictures and one of the MPEGs here:
http://www.angelfire.com/sd/sdmirror/
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Look at the OOPic http://www.oopic.com
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
What's your address, again?
Don't get me wrong, I think this is really cool but I don't quite see how this would work on rough terrain because it uses the shearing forces on the wheels to push it forward(as I understand it). Snakes also move by sending ripples along their underside where special scales that are angled in a way such that they grip to the surface they are on thus moving them forward. If the wheels are free to move in either direction I can't see how the component of the shearing force that drives the snake forward would be larger that the force of gravity on the snake on a slope. Wouldn't there have to be some kind of friction present to hold the snake in place? I'm not expert, but scales for grip and ripples seem a better way to go to make it better for rough uneven terrain.
Still cool though, I want one!
I think that the idea of building robots is a fasinating idea. I keep seeing people say that it would be cool to freak other people out with the robotic snake..but think...If I owned one of these, it would be cool to have and NO COST OF FOOD!! I love that idea! No clean up, no food, no upkeep, but if it acted like a real snake, then hey, I have an animal that requires nothing..just the enjoyment of having one! Me
"I have lost my way in life, because I have lost my mind. I would go and search for it, but I'm afraid of what I'd find
--Clay
I don't think this would be too useful. given the military histories, if the army found out about this form of surveillance, they'd have to react.
how would they react? Why, by killing all of the REAL snakes off in the affected area. That way, all snakes must be spies, and can thus be detected. Foolproof. The environment, you say? Bah, we're fighting a war here, can't you see that?
flying cars you say? the 12/1999 SciAm has a 1/3 page blurb about Moller finally getting to testing their flying cars (moller.com)
"There is no spoon" - Neo, The Matrix
My first question is... Why are wheels nessesary, really? Is it because the surface provides too much/not enough friction with the surface? The only other option is that the motion looks good, but it fails to emulate it to the degree nessesary for true-to-life locomotion.
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Perhaps this could be addressed.
And how hard would it be to provide a micro GPS and transmitter? We do this with birds (the transmitter anyways), so it obviously isn't heavy or cumbersome. Snakes aren't exactly light either, so if you could get the locomotion correct then simply inserting substantial batteries in the "cells" (mold them around the drivetrain) could create an interesting self-supporting system, at least for a while.
Imagine solar cells. Have it bask when the energy is low. Just think about what a skin made of solar cells would look like... [grin]
God, this has made my whole day...
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Quux26
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Ever hear of swim bladders? Alot of aquatic things are equipped with them. Give the snake some balloons where real lungs would be and he'll float.
Although this is a pretty cool engineering feat and will probably eventually become useful, I don't consider it to be very meaningful in the Big Scheme of things. IMNSHO, biomimetics is the result of people getting what is essentially the wrong message from nature.
/that/. This may not (in fact, it probably will not) produce motion mechanisms that are identical to snakes', but it will at the very least produce systems that are equivalently adapt at moving in the same kind of environment. Not only that, it'll also provide us with an endless source of new ideas for systems and of insight as to how to design better ones. In effect, instead of copying nature's mechanisms, we are learning to program for ourselves.
... which is what is generally thought to be most likely to have happened. Before you try to assert that there was any kind of external (external to the environment - i.e., supernatural) intervention, let me tell you that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and until I see some of it, I'm sticking with the strictly-natural theory.
What I mean is: people look at, e.g., a snake moving around gracefully, and they say "Let's replicate that kind of movement! It'll make for very useful robots!" So they go and study snake physiology for years on end, eventually mapping down the entire motion mechanism. Then comes the hard part: they try to build an artificial motion mechanism that works on the same principles. This proves incredibly frustrating, and it takes a Long Long Time and plenty of irritating compromises before someone comes out with a workable design - which will likely resemble the original in very few aspects. In effect, they're just trying to reverse-engineer a finished product [1], knowing only assembler code and nothing of high-level programming.
Now, I think a much better way to do things is to notice, instead, how incredible it is that such a powerful and versatile, while buggy, mechanism has arisen from just a few organic molecules without external intervention [2], and to concentrate on learning how the evolutionary process works - and to try and mimick
Of course, I'm aware that many steps have already been taken in this direction (the GA-designed Lego Bridge comes to mind), but GA-based tech is nowhere near as popular a research field as traditional biomimetics.
[1] Yes, I know, nothing in nature is a "finished product". I just used the term for the purpose of analogy.
[2]
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
Actually snakes do not have slimy skin. They have scales which are quite dry I assure you.
The heck with robots. This thing should scale nicely. Make it 40ft long with a cockpit at the head and you have the baddest all terrain vehicle on or off the road. Just imagine driving this thing through the jungle, desert, ocean, the surface of Mars, your neighbor's lawn...
http://www.aontic.com/snake/
Moderate up so people can take a quick look at this stuff...
e'cuse me lady would you like to see my snake?
Real men dump cores! Read my journal, I am neat.
This is all practical research done at MIT right now with proven results. It's far more promising than trying to engineer something from scratch. Nature has millions of years worth of R&D to develop its solutions. Why not tap it?
I disagree.
:)
I knew somebody would...
There's a lot to be learned from the biological nature of things.
Of course there is. I never disputed that.
The most successful models and robots that have been developed so far mimic things found in the biological world. For example, distributed learning and mechanics is what ants and bees have learned to do. If a single ant or bee finds a source of food or pollen, chances are that in under half an hour, there will be a lot of its friends there. Big clunky walking machines are not the way to go: lightweight machines which have a single joint like the human knee are what works.
I'm aware of all this research. But it all depends on your definition of "successful". So far you've missed my point.
Or, make a robotic model like a cockroac h and you'll find that you can move and get over obstacles better than anywhere else. And if you want to move in water, you should learn to swim like a tuna.
"Better than anywhere else" is subjective. It's good, yeah, but who says that there isn't a much better way to do it that no engineer has yet figured out, but that, say, a distributed computing effort applying an iterative recombination/mutation/selection algorithm over a design for a locomotion system might find really quickly?
This is all practical research done at MIT right now with proven results.
Yes, I'm aware of that.
It's far more promising than trying to engineer something from scratch.
Again, that's questionable.
Nature has millions of years worth of R&D to develop its solutions. Why not tap it?
I didn't say we shouldn't tap it. What I said is that, when designing technology in the future, we should not confine ourselves to the examples provided to us by nature - especially not if we ever intend to move out en masse towards new environments in which natural biological evolution hasn't produced useful design paradigms. Nature may have had millions of years, but nature's iterative cycles are slow, while ours needn't be. With increasing computing power, it's not inconceivable that in a short time we may be able to perfect GA-based systems that spew out completely innovative designs ready for incorporation into new technology - and why not, even entirely artificial machinery nanobuilt directly from computer-generated specs.
So it's not a question of "what research path can produce results?", or of "what has produced the most useable results so far?". It's a question of "what is the most promising path in the long term?" For now, we're still playing catch-up, but eventually, we'll outrun the natural evolutive processes, and then there'll be nothing left to copy.
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
THEY SUCK SO BAD... god damn.
Very, very cool. I was also intrigued when I noticed a link to a poem he had written about a python. Sure enough, there was a poem dedicated to "the python grows, and thinks of you".
:)
Wow, can anyone say "obsessed"?
I was also going to make some snide comment about the poem itself, but realised that my best effort was something like this:
There one was a remote controlled snake,
Who's appearance was so hard to take.
The people, they'd scream
"A Snake! How obsecene"
Don't worry, it's only a fake.
see topic
If your point is that someday we'll be able to do better than nature, that's great! But I think for now, we have to adapt to what nature has already created and try to learn what we can from it. Then, at some point, we'll be able to go beyond it and control it. Eugenics is a great example of how nature has developed a wonderful means for reproduction, survival, and evolution. If we can control it, that's great. And if we can develop an even better model, that'd be truly amazing. Yes, we will definitely run out of things to copy. I think the difference between our points of view is that I believe that we have to use nature to get by it while your opinion is that we can blow right by it to something better. Do I sound about right?
Sounds like the Cybermats from Dr. Who.
I don't know if that would work. In order for it to float it would need to displace about 7kg of water, which implies that it's volume would increase. Would the swim bladders be on the outside? It could possibly plump like a super Ball Park frank to become a log...
I think the difference between our points of view is that I believe that we have to use nature to get by it while your opinion is that we can blow right by it to something better. Do I sound about right?
:)
The real difference is that I'm doing research in distributed computing, so to me anything is an excuse to push a distributed computing effort...
Your points are valid, of course, and so is biomimetics-oriented research. My point is simply that, knowing that technological advances usually come much faster than you expect, it's imprudent not to start preparing already, at least in terms of infrastructure, to support future research on what seems to be a very promising field once we have the technology necessary to do it well (i.e., computing systems that are able to simulate real-world conditions with enough detail that it's possible to perform automated selection between different "individuals" based on their performance in the simulation).
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
it's bleeding deMISED. it's passed ON. it has ceased to BE. it's exPIRED and gone to meet it's maKAH. it's a STIFF. berift of life it rests in peace -- if you hadn't nailed it to the perch it'd be pushing up the DASIES!
I'm not just being hateful here. I really mean it, I can't take care of them. It's not that I don't like them or anything, it's that taking on a live animal is a responsibility I'm not up to. I never have enough time to play with it. And not enough regularity in my life to take proper care of it.
I can't even feed myself properly most of the time (Bothering to order a salad along with my pizza is a highlight in my weekly nourishment). Having a live animal would mean I couldn't just take off and drive south for a couple of weeks anymore. A live pet is a commitment for something like 15 years (okay, maybe half, as I'd definitely go to the asylum to get an older abandoned one rather than a puppy/kitten/whatever). I guess I'm just immature. It's fine when you have parents to do the work, and you just get the fun. There were always pets around when I was younger.
I tried Sea Monkeys, the ultimate instant carefree pet, and highly disposable too, but they're just too damn small. I can't relate much with little white dots.
Now I've seen this and it definitely looks promising. But I don't want to control it. What I'm really looking for is some random movement in the corner of my eye, that comes with an OFF button. I'd get an Aibo if they weren't so hard to come by. So I'm definitely keeping an eye out for someone to turn this into a product.
Flo out
Great! Now we'll *really* be able to freak out the girls in phy ed class! =)
Fun! I'd love to play with one of these. Put a real looking skin on it, and have fun at the office...
I hope they have made a Python interface for it...
Amazing technology, but all I can think of is evil thoughts of hiding it around the house to scare the hell out of my wife and cats. Damn I'm sick :)
Now, there's about 100,000 user accounts at Slashdot. Assume 40% are genuine and get used. Assume 40% Slashdot readers will love one of these snakes. Without bothering to check, that's about 16,000 people who'd be interested in buying one of these, just cos its cool.
Yeah!
This thing would make a really nice infiltration and surveillance system in some environments... snakes, at least the fleshy kind, can go ANYWHERE, climb posts, get under houses or underneath doors, go damn near any place they care to wriggle too... they can hide very easily... and people just naturally don't want to TOUCH one even if they find it (which would keep it from being detected).
Dammit, I was already afraid of snakes, now I have to be worried that they're listening to me, too.
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
Very cool. I am wondering how well it handles any sort of realistic terrain. Works well on a nice piece of flat pavement but does it still work on ground with a few more bumps. If it could this would be the ultimate in surveillance. The go anywhere, do anything spy.
This demonstrates the breaking down of barriers between what is real in terms of physical existence in its traditional forms and what is virtual. The whole robotic snake concept is a metaphor of the state of modern technology. Here we have technology taking the form of a serpent and demonstrating the principle that technology may "bite back." This may even have religious connections to the original sin. Nobody tell Jon Katz about this, please.
...do they eat mice?
{ducks}
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
whatever. everyone knows dr. doom invented the robotic remote-controlled snake. it sucks though because spiderman figured out how to modify his webslinger to stick to the veno-bot's poisonous scales well before veno-bot could send the city into chaos.
please do your research people.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
D'oh I missed my first post!
/.ed or maybe it is the bad connection speeds from this crumby school.
But me's thinks the site has been
Apathy -- The state of numbness of the mind. When you are apathic, you can think.
this is the best way I have yet seen to get rid of annoying costumers.... also I'd like to see the reaction this gets up here in Iceland (we don't have any snakes around here)
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Killroy Woz Here
I have my robot snake running on a Coppermine and it won't wake up. Any ideas? =)
Pablo Nevares, "the freshmaker".
Pablo Nevares, "the freshmaker".
I seem to recall the prototype robotic snake in the sci fi flick Westworld. The rattlesnake was the first of the robots to actually hurt a human (serpent in paradise?)
How come there is no picture of S4?
-- DrZaius - Minister of Sciences and Protector of the Faith
- Surveillance,
- Collapsed Building Rescue,
- Minimally Invasive Surgery,
- Toys (the 'r'Us kind),
- Toys (the He Who Dies With The Most kind),
- Toys (the Sex kind)
Sorry, had to go there. It was obligatory.and...
I can see the fnords!
Ok, here's another case of art imitating life. Remember Blade Runner and the artificial snakes that the strippers used? This is too cool; I want one from my wife. And best of all they don't bite!
"Some OOPic robotics can be found here
Let's put those robotic snakes in Jimhotep's underwear. That will teach him abusing his child
and betraying our country by choosing Hitler's side! Hitler, synonym of evil. Thousands of Americans sacrificed themselves in Normandy to insure the freedom that we enjoy today. Those soldiers fought an evil cancer that spread across Europe, killing millions of innocent lives and brutally tortured defenseless children. And a traitor like the Slashdotreader called "Jimhotep" should be banned from Slashdot right away. If the ancient Imhotep still lived, he'd throw Jimhotep in a robotic snakepit!
and assume that 40% of these same Slashdot readers have paying jobs, and 40% of these live with their parents and have no expenses, and assume 40% of these have not already blown their money on an AIBO or 21" Nokia iMac, then there may be enough buyers to prolong the company another few weeks beofre the enevitable bankruptcy because the things will cost too damn much.
;-)
save you money for Unreal Tournament
gg
gg
Dr.Whiz-Bang
Ricki Tcl/Tk Tavi
-Spazimodo
Fsck the millennium, we want it now.
Fsck the millennium, we want it now.
Millennium Crisis Line: 0890 900 2000 [calls cost 50p/min]
Just the thing to clean my drains...
:)
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I'm guessing the movement would actually be easier than on land, but our current technology has a major limitation -- it weighs 7 kg. That's as much as a real big house cat, but it's volume looks to be way to little to support that.
I can't wait -- new from JPL -- robotic martian sidewinders that can't get stuck up against a rock.
Did anybody else think this was cool:
S3 was first shown publicly when it served as the ring-bearer at my wedding on June 19th 1999
I bet that caused quite a stir! To hell with doves at the wedding, robot snakes are just so much more fun.
--JT
Would the snake model be more effective than a rolling device for exploring rocky enviroments such as Mars? A snake couldn't get turned upside down, stuck on a rock, etc. The outside surface could be flexible solar cells (can they flex?). One of the biggest drawbacks of the Mars Rover thing was that you had to tell it to make tiny movements for fear of getting stuck.. With this you could tell it go 50 feet south and it could automagically navigate over/around obstacles..
Well you could put a small plasma pistol in thier mouth and have them do a high tech impression of a spitting cobra.
see the subject
Last year a friend of mine did his thesis in robotics. He built an "amoebot", which was basically a hexagon with three motors which, by changing the shape of the hexagon could redistribute its weight and roll forward.
He only had time to build a couple proof-of-concept prototypes, so they're not nearly as slick looking as S5, but still pretty nifty when you think about how it works. His second model would scan for a light source and move towards it. He's got some pics and movies on his homepage.
This is really just an exercise in compact mechanical design and precision machining. It doesn't come anywhere close really simulating a snake. These 'mechanical snakes' move simply by orienting a long track of wheels in such a way that sheering forces are induced that propel the body forward.
The resulting effect is something that only looks like a snake, but doesn't replicate any of the complex but subtle perceptions/decisions and movements required by real snakes. I'd be far more impressed if the snake instead moved by sliding it's body (not it's wheels) through a set of bumps. Such a machine could travel almost anywhere in the real world.
The pictures he has labeled as a reticulated python (Python reticulatus) are actually a Burmese python (Python molurus bivitattus). They are both large pythons in the same genus, and are found over much of the same places, so I suppose it is an easy mistake to make. I happen to have a reticulated python as a pet, and she is much prettier than that burmese.
I'm surprised there wasn't a Who comment. One of Dr Millers early animation works was entitled "Boris The Spider". What's up Rob ?
Don't forget that many people's reactions when seeing a snake is to grab the first shovel they see or whatnot and start swinging. Would be a pretty expensive prank when it happens.
slap some real looking slimy skin onto it,
Damnit, snakes are not slimy. Their clean, dry scales just reflect light in a way similar to that of slime (mucous?).
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
After I looked at the site and the mindstorm kid in me went ... wow kewl! ... I had this incredible urge to go watch Westworld ... creepy
WoW...It can move like a snake..
I just gotta say it: Beowulf is a very lame name for something
Could be crummy... But crumby works too. It's supposed to be a 10 megabit connection... But I have a hard time getting over 2000 cps loading /. whereas I can get 5000 cps on my 56k from home... And it's got a few bad routers somewhere that keep giving my HTTP 503 errors... Crumby, you guys get the peanut butter and jelly sandwichs, and I have to wait all day just for the crumbs...
Apathy -- The state of numbness of the mind. When you are apathic, you can think.
Personally, my major problem in robotics is the mechanics. I do think that managing the complexity with PICs would be hard. At the very least I'd recommend going with AVRs and programming in something highlevel. C would be the lowest level programming language for such a task. Simple robotic control problems are usually a nice mix of tackling concurrency and some kinematic modelling. C and a real-time OS can do the job. Higher level planning of requires some degree of symbolic computation.
Now, if only I could find a mechanics wizard here in DK.
That's the date it will be published and on the news stand, not the date it was written.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Robotic snake, huh? Won't be long before we have flying cars, electric sheep that dream, and Atari making a surprise comeback.
Without you I'm one step closer to happiness without violence.
Supposing I wanted to make some computer controlled robotics, what would be the best way to start? Has anyone found a Mindstorms (tm) like system but for controlling stuff hooked up to a computer through a C program. Like uhh
/* 12 volts 120 hertz AC,
// (move the arm 1 degree
// along the x axis until it touches)
// crush it
#include
int main() {
robot arm(arm, 12, 120, 3, 2);
3 axis of movement, 2 other motors
*/
while (!arm.is_touching())
arm.move(1,1);
arm.motor(2, +32767);
return 0;
}
If they ever got this thing to move and act exactly like a snake with the toungue and everything , slap some real looking slimy skin onto it, then it would be a believable snake. Next put some cameras on the eyes.. maybe some other infra red lenses, some form of radar.. who knows, and they could send that thing out into jungle wars like in korea for instance, slithering around like that.. you could have it walk.. err slither right by enemy troops and they wouldnt have a clue.
I think if this guy really got into it.. he could add a half decent processor to it and make it able to swim in water like rivers or swamps or even climb trees. The possibilities with this kind of thing in my opinion are endless.
*This space was intentionally left blank.
Does it run Linux?
Just imagine building a Beowulf cluster out of these things!!!
and guess what you get?
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I know, it's a bit off-topic, but am I the only one who saw this note at the bottom of the New Scientist article?
How did they manage to quote an article that will be written the day after tomorrow?
-Raphaël
I want one of these! It'd be great to scare people and play with my cats! One question though. Can the head go up so the snake can slither up objects (such as a leg? >:) )
Are these things programmed with Asimov's 3 laws? ...and I can see Disney buyin this guy out in a hurry...can you see "Westworld" for real in the near future?
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
The site is currently being /.ed and I can't see the movies. I can't wait the day or so till it slows down, I need to see it now.
Howdy.
Dates on magazines are expiration dates, not print dates.
CyberSnake Model 101, anyone?
"The 600-series had rubber skin, we spotted them easy ..."
I say, these snakes need glowing red eyes! Don't use rubber skin, though, or they'll be spotted immediately. But they don't look like they'll ever be able to hold a plasma rifle, snakes typically have too few hands...
(Apologies to James Cameron)
From what I remember, legOS was a replacement operating system from the MindStorms kit that let you program C applications for your robots.
Check it out here for yourself.
-- It is too late for the pebbles to vote, the avalanche has already started.
Hmm...this thing would be awesome if it could sense stuff on it's own and had it's own intelligence. It would certainly give it more usefulness. At the very least it needs a camera mounted on the front so that the driver of it doesn't have to be able to see it at all times.
DeCSS is akin to a tool that breaks the lock on your house
Taken from http://www.mpaa.org/Press/default.HTM
"When robot snakes attack," tonight on FOX!
A family of four lost their Aibo last night when, tragically, a loose robot snake ate it. Robot snakes typically need to eat only one Aibo a month to survive, and, once satiated, return to their nests.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
When asked why he began work on the artificial snake, Dr. Miller replied, "If I could afford a real snake, do you think I'd be working in a place like this?"
Am I the only one picturing a robotic snake eating your Aibo when you aren't looking?