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Robot Walks on Water
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Fri Sep 10, 2004 04:26 AM
from the robot-news-week dept.
from the robot-news-week dept.
gmletzkojr writes "Yahoo! News has a story about a robot built to walk on water, much like small insects, bugs, and of course, Jesus. The current robot is only a prototype, but more 'useful' robots are already being imagined." This puts into practice what scientists learned just last year.
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Well now... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Well now... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Well now... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Well now... (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't work. Guy takes 3 days to respawn...
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Re:Well now... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Well now... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Well now... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Well now... (Score:5, Interesting)
A great energy source, all the robots would need to do is to smell like shit, and they'd be done for life
Imagine a lake covered in shitsmelling robots, what a sight!
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Re:Well now... (Score:5, Interesting)
'Harriman said, "We cannot control insects effectively without risking damage to the ecology. Chemical insecticides are too broad; juvenile hormones too limited. The robo-bird, however, can preserve large areas without being consumed [...] If the fruit-fly supply runs short, the robo-bird does nothing. It does not multiply, it does not turn to other foods, it does not develop undesirable habits of its own. It does nothing.'
Obviously that's not going to happen just yet - it'll take a lot more than water-walking and fly-digestion - but it does seem that maybe we're on our way to this sort of thing.
I'm not an Asimov nut by the way, I just finished reading 'The Complete Robot' the other day and still have it by my desk.
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It's A Miracle! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's A Miracle! (Score:5, Funny)
I welcome our new jesusbot overlords.
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BBC article with pictures... (Score:5, Informative)
Times Have Changed... (Score:3, Funny)
Lava-proof (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Lava-proof (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Lava-proof (Score:3, Informative)
Not so. Lava, like any other fluid, has a surface tension (and a particularly high one at that). It should, in principle, be able to support much greater masses although I'd like to see someone try to walk on it.
Re:Lava-proof (Score:4, Interesting)
You might find our instructions for walking on hot lava here [instanthawaii.com] most useful. We also pick it up using special kevlar and spun glass gloves that can withstand 2000 F for 20 seconds without breaching.
Aloha
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Quick mover (Score:5, Insightful)
Since these little things rely on some form of surface tension, will a surfact tension modified such as oil or soap affect them.
I knew it! (Score:5, Funny)
They'd already put this in practice last year! (Score:5, Informative)
NEWSFLASH (Score:5, Funny)
Film at Eleven.
Re:NEWSFLASH (Score:5, Funny)
Film at Twelve.
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Water walking (Score:3, Funny)
Related Joke (Score:5, Funny)
Without a moment's hesitation John jumps from the boat and strides confidently to the shore and takes up position next to Jesus. They embrace, turn and both implore Peter, "Come!" Peter cautiously steps out of the boat and after not even a step sinks to the bottom.
John asks, "Master, should we have told him where the rocks are?"
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Unrelated joke (Score:5, Funny)
Days passed, and Jesus was getting nersous. Then he heard a knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Matthew"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Crack-cocaine from Los Angeles"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door, and Matthew stepped inside
Then there was another knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Peter"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Ecstacy from Amsterdam"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door and Peter stepped in.
Then there was another knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, John"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Khat from Mogadishu"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door and John stepped in
Then there was another knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Simon"
"What did you bring with you?"
"Heroin from Moscow"
"Very good my child, come on in"
Jesus opened the door and Simon stepped in.
Then there was anothe knock on the door:
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Judas"
"What did you bring with you?"
"DEA motherfuckers! Hands against the wall!"
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Re:Water walking (Score:5, Funny)
Jesus and Moses are playing golf one Saturday with an old friend. Moses tees up first, and hits his ball straight at the water hazard. He lifts his driver up and immediately the waters part, the ground dries up, and his ball rolls right to the green, mere feet from the cup
Jesus is up next. He takes his shot and, again, the ball heads straight for the water. Jesus calmly raises his hand and the ball skims smoothly across the surface of the water and rolls onto the green, just inches from the hole.
Finally, the old man is up. He takes his drive and, sure enough, his ball heads straight for the water hazard. The old man calmly nods his head and a trout jumps out of the water, grabs his ball in its mouth, and splashes back into the water. At that moment a bald eagle swoops down on the trout and snatches him out of the water. The eagle streaks into midair, where he is struck by lightning, dropping the trout onto the green, where the ball pops out of its mouth and rolls into the cup.
Jesus turns to the old man and says, "Nice shot, dad."
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Umm, yes, but... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Umm, yes, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Mosquito-killer (Score:3, Interesting)
Bye bye mosquito's!!
Remember kids: (Score:5, Funny)
so why not (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine (Score:3, Funny)
capsula? (Score:5, Informative)
Oh -- it looks like they're still being made... I guess it's time to find out my Visa's credit limit.
Ice? (Score:3, Funny)
The water-walker and the dead-fly eater (Score:3, Interesting)
umm - maybe they could merge, provide pool-cleaning facilities, say.
h
Perfect sig for sale - only one careful owner
We are all doomed (Score:4, Funny)
RoboStrider '03 (Score:3, Informative)
Robot-Jesus (Score:5, Funny)
Jewish Bot: "We believe he was built and that he was a very well programmed robot, but he wasn't our messiah."
my roommate did this as an undergrad (Score:5, Interesting)
Most recently he built a robotic snail that, in its current incarnation, actually goes completely upside down. Oddly enough, he calls it robosnail [mit.edu].
Did I mention the dude makes his own swords [mit.edu]?
The Carnegie Mellon site with Pictures (Score:5, Informative)
The CM NanoRobotics home page is here [cmu.edu].
Both have pictures of the bot and many others.
well (Score:5, Funny)
Yet another obscure American reference (Score:5, Funny)
Don't they know that not all of their readers are going to get their obscure American pop culture references? The least they could do is include a link to the guy's website, or something. Besides, I'm sure he could probably use a little publicity outside of the US.
what would evil robot jesus do? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Pictures? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.me.cmu.edu/faculty1/sitti/na
Still trying to figure out why this is a useful invention though...
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Re:Pictures? (Score:3, Insightful)
We've already done walking, flying and swimming bots, so why not skimming?
Re:Pictures? (Score:3, Interesting)
Develop immunity to that!
Re:Pictures? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:I may as well nitpick... (Score:5, Funny)
You've never used Windows then, have you?
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I may as well nitpick your nitpick. (Score:3, Informative)
Spider. Centipede. Woodlouse. Met any of these?
IIRC, the major features of insects are having six legs and a distinct head, thorax, and abdomen. Many small insect-like creatures don't have these.
There is an order of true bugs in the insect kingdom, but that's only one of the meanings of the word, and certainly the less used.
Oh, and nits aren't bugs, either. Formally, they're the eggs of lice, not the lice themselves.
Re:Jesus didn't walk on the water (Score:4, Interesting)
The most prevalent form of the Matthew text is Greek (the most widely understood written language in the region). The Greek word used in the Matthew text is transliterated "peripateo" - to walk. The Greek word for "swim" is transliterated "kolympo" - to bathe or swim.
However, tradition strongly suggests that the original Matthew writings would have favored Hebrew (highly plausible - given his background). If so, it's original form is lost. Yet, there are distinct words for walk and swim in Hebrew, also. Translators understanding both languages would have been able to avoid a confusion pretty easily.
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