This brings back my childhood fear of the blob. On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 6:13 AM, Martin Baxter <martinbaxt...@gmail.com>wrote:
> > > It can also be used as a weapon, after a fashion. Just looking at it makes > my stomach do slow rolls... > > > On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 6:14 AM, Mr. Worf <hellomahog...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> >> iRobot's oozy ChemBot amazes and terrifies >> by Leslie Katz <http://www.cnet.com/profile/Leslie+Katz/> >> >> - Font size >> - Print >> - E-mail >> - Share >> - 27 >> comments<http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10375216-1.html#comments> >> - Yahoo! >> Buzz<http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzz?publisherurn=cnet_crave854&guid=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.cnet.com%2F8301-17938_105-10375216-1.html%3Ftag%3Dyahoobuzz> >> >> >> Share503<http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.cnet.com%2F8301-17938_105-10375216-1.html&t=iRobot%27s%20oozy%20ChemBot%20amazes%20and%20terrifies%20%7C%20Crave%20-%20CNET&src=sp> >> >> For now, it's palm-size, sure, but what if something terrible happens, and >> it can't stop inflating? >> (Credit: YouTube screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET) >> >> We're getting a first glimpse of that shape-shifting >> ChemBot<http://news.cnet.com/8301-17912_3-9970345-72.html>we first told you >> about last year, and well, it looks like the love child of >> a beating heart and a wad of Silly Putty. >> >> The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Army Research >> Office awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to iRobot to create the >> flexible military bot. The maker of the Roomba and Scooba, along with >> University of Chicago researchers, showed off the oozy results at the Iros >> conference<http://www.iros09.mtu.edu/index.php/IROS_2009:_The_2009_IEEE/RSJ_International_Conference_on_Intelligent_RObots_and_Systems>(the >> IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) in >> St. Louis this week. >> >> DARPA envisions the palm-size ChemBot as a mobile robot that can traverse >> soft terrain and navigate through small openings, such as tiny wall cracks, >> during reconnaissance and search-and-rescue missions. It gets around by way >> of a process called "jamming," in which material can transition between >> semiliquid and solid states with only a slight change in volume. >> >> In ChemBot's case, a flexible silicone skin encapsulates a series of >> pockets containing a mix of air and loosely packed particles. When air is >> removed from the compartments, the skin attempts to equalize the pressure >> differential by constricting the particles, which shift slightly to fill the >> void left by the evacuated air. >> >> In that way, the weird little blob inflates and deflates parts of its >> body, changing size and shape--and scaring the living daylights out of us. >> We don't know exactly when ChemBot will join the Armed Forces, but we can >> only beg: please, oh please, keep it away from us. >> >> *(Via IEEE >> Spectrum<http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/robotics/robotics-software/automaton/irobot-soft-morphing-blob-chembot>) >> * >> >> >> > > > -- > "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell > wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik > >
