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.

Nokia Morph

[religious freak]

Nokia has a somewhat similar concept of this as well, implemented for mobile devices http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX-gTobCJHs [youtube.com]

Concept design, but pretty cool to watch.

Medical applications

[GaryOlson]

I know some digestive system specialist is thinking of ways this can be used in intestines for diagnosis and treatment. Those guys will use any equipment which gives patients a bad feeling both before and during the procedure. But, I could see how installing cameras at all vertices on the blob could be useful for taking a complete picture inside a cavity. And how this could move around blockages which currently require more aggressive methods of removal/retraction.

What I want....

[mark-t]

... is a small robot vacuum a lot like the Roomba that can *ALSO* automatically empty its canister into a larger bin whenever the vacuum is full.

wow no obligitory T-1000 comment ?

[Brigadier]

now I know something is going on with slashdot, I totally expected a barage of T-1000 rants, and knee jerk joke threads.

Re:Uh oh

[bkpark]

Please tell me this research isn't being done on a remote island...

Don't you mean, "Please tell me this research is being done on a remote island", in case something goes wrong?

Re:Medical applications

[Jahava]

There are some basic problems with this - specifically, iRobot's demonstration uses the addition and removal of air to control both size and hardness. In bodily cavities, not only would air be in limited supply, but in some areas (i.e. blood stream) it's downright not welcome!

Unsettling?

[Gothmolly]

Why is everything either a YRO or Orwellian issue here? Can't it just be cool?

A more conventional robot seems more effective.

[argent]

Why would this be more effective than a robot consisting of 20 linear actuators inside a tough enclosure? For that matter a serpentine or ferret-like robot would be more effective at fitting through narrow openings. There's reasons large animals abandoned amoeboid motion in favor of crawling or slithering.

Re:A more conventional robot seems more effective.

[x2A]

"There's reasons large animals abandoned amoeboid motion in favor of crawling or slithering"

Oh and yes there was... big things are harder to organise and maintain... from the tiny (when atoms get too big they split) to the large (when civilisations get too large they split, we have seen this happen many times). Cells are the same... to become big animals, you have to go from being single celled to multiple celled, to multiple celled with specialist cells to perform different functions better than a single cell could perform all of them. Arranging that into a fluidic mass is much harder than giving it structure and legs and muscles etc. That doesn't mean that legs are better; just easier for nature to come up with.