Swarmanoid 'Bots Rule Air, Land, Bookshelves 41
An anonymous reader writes "The notion of distributed processing isn't new, and its application to robotics leads naturally to the idea of a swarm of robots. However, most swarm-oriented robots are composed of many identical robots (such as The Kilobots). In this case, there are three types of robots: a 'hand-bot,' which can climb bookcases and grab objects with hands; a 'foot-bot,' which can drive around and carry the hand-bot; and an 'eye-bot,' which flies around and perches on the ceiling to provide a perspective to the other bots."
Another reader points out an unrelated but also-impressive video of Kinect being used to develop a user-friendly robot assistant.
Buh bye (Score:2)
Welp, guess its time to start developing that EMP-shotgun...
Wasnt there a /. story a while back about some University that developed an explosive that also released a short range EMP burst? iirc the Air Force wanted to use it to make missiles.
There was no "hello" - it's vaporware (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt any of this will exist anytime soon. We still can just barely manage to get the desktops in the lab to cooperate with each other on most apps. And it is just software, and they are connected with cables, which are more reliable and higher transfer speeds. Or is there anyone here who manages to use distributed processing on most apps on their desktop?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing [wikipedia.org]
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Or is there anyone here who manages to use distributed processing on most apps on their desktop?
does incredibuild (when I'm programming), and rendering apps for filmFX work count?
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Several kinds of apps can already distribute their load across processors, workstations, and even operating systems. Most of our apps however don't do any of that. If I'm on an old, old, workstation running trying to run GIMP and Firefox with a bunch of web 2.0 apps, in an office full of idling quad-core workstations, the apps will still run slow as molasses. Even GMail and Google Maps won't run properly on old pc's anymore.
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Pronouns (Score:2)
... a lot of people believe that killing some of them makes the rest of us better.
FTFY. Define "them" and "us" as deemed expedient in each case.
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Of course a big part of the problem is a lot of people believe that killing some of us makes the rest of us better.
Mathematically, they're correct.
Kill off everybody except you and another random person, and you have improved the odds of being better than anybody else from microscopic to a staggering 50%. Kill him or her too, and you're the best person on the planet.
The real problem is the propensity towards thinking "best" is a synonym of "like me". So they want to improve others, not themselves. Religion makes this happen faster, by providing a framework for how others should be changed.
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Kill off everybody except you and another random person, and you have improved the odds of being better than anybody else from microscopic to a staggering 50%. Kill him or her too, and you're the best person on the planet.
Note that your odds of being the worst person increase the same way.
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That's just "best" being undefined, which obviously is a requirement, so yes, you can change the sign without invalidating the logic.
The superlative being undefined means the logic will also work with "prettiest", "most well endowed", or any other trait one can identify oneself with. Which makes it surprising that the human race has survived. I guess the Russians love their children too.
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Or is there anyone here who manages to use distributed processing on most apps on their desktop?
I very frequently invoke a massive network of distributed computing nodes to perform internet searches for me. I expect you do too.
Cables? (Score:1)
And it is just software, and they are connected with cables, which are more reliable and higher transfer speeds.
If I can see correctly, there are no cables at all between these robots. It's not even possible; how would the Eye-bot fly around with a cable attached to it? The main point of the demonstration is to show how different types of robots can work together to achieve a task, not demonstrate distributed computing.
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Wasnt there a /. story a while back about some University that developed an explosive that also released a short range EMP burst? iirc the Air Force wanted to use it to make missiles.
You make EMP by energizing a coil wrapped around some HE and then blowing it up. At least that's how it's done in the Tomahawk cruise missile. Perhaps you could put a coil of super-fine wire in the front of a shot shell, and put enough powder behind it to vaporize it.
Reminder ... (Score:2)
Quote: "The evolution was controlled by "robot wars", and the only form that survived were swarms of minuscule, insect-like micromachines. Individually, or in small groups, they are quite harmless to humans and capable of only very simple behavior. However, when bothered, they can assemble into huge swarms displaying complex behavior arising from self-organization, and are able to defeat an intruder by a powerful surge of EMI."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible
CC.
One letter too much... (Score:1)
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What the fuck is a "warmanoid"?
Add to that (Score:2)
'hand-bot,' which can climb bookcases and grab objects with hands; a 'foot-bot,' which can drive around and carry the hand-bot; and an 'eye-bot,'
Add to that dick-bot, the guy who came up with the idea
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Dick-bots is a separate field of study, more commonly referred to as tele-dildonics or just dildonics.
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Add to that dick-bot, the guy who came up with the idea
Also the camera-bot who is often in positions where one might expect a human helping/moving the bots (e.g. holding that string ...).
Sound design (Score:2)
I just love how the choice of music, the clicks and whirrs, the way the footbots light up, all conspire to reinforce the sense of creeping dread.
Okay, you know you are out of shape (Score:2)
One hint that you need to loose some weight is that when the idea of a little plastic robot moving a few meters per hour scares the living crap out of you.
These things would take half a day just to get to the door let alone open it. And then only if suddenly people start to make their roofs out of metal, perforated metal.
Terminator it is is not.
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Mmm, zombies are so slow! You can just walk around them.
But if there's millions of them, it gets trickier.
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That's exactly what Skynet would say...
user-friendly robot assistant (Score:1)
...your plastic pal that's fun to be with...
Humans (Score:2)
Human beings among other mammals are comprised of many many fleshy robots that make up our systems. When nanotech reaches an apex, it will mimic nature to the extent that instead of three robots, you'll have infinite robots in any given robotic organism. The more the merrier; this is a survival tactic for organisms when cells die off or become injured the backup cells take over.
When a non-cellular robot is injured it must rely on the injury being located away from its repair features or the robot is written
I thought there were only two kinds of robots (Score:1)
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Vashta Nerada (Score:1)
Credit (Score:1)
Hitchhiker's Guide (Score:1)
Prey (Score:2)
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