Scientists Use Dead Spider As Gripper For Robot Arm, Label It a 'Necrobot'

New submitter know-nothing cunt shares a report from The Register: Scientists from Rice University in Texas have used a dead spider as an actuator at the end of a robot arm -- a feat they claim has initiated the field of "necrobotics." "Humans have relied on biotic materials -- non-living materials derived from living organisms -- since their early ancestors wore animal hides as clothing and used bones for tools," the authors state in an article titled Necrobotics: Biotic Materials as Ready-to-Use Actuators. The article, published by Advanced Science, also notes that evolution has perfected many designs that could be useful in robots, and that spiders have proven especially interesting. Spiders' legs "do not have antagonistic muscle pairs; instead, they have only flexor muscles that contract their legs inwards, and hemolymph (i.e., blood) pressure generated in the prosoma (the part of the body connected to the legs) extends their legs outwards."

The authors had a hunch that if they could generate and control a force equivalent to blood pressure, they could make a dead spider's legs move in and out, allowing them to grip objects and release them again. So they killed a wolf spider "through exposure to freezing temperature (approximately -4C) for a period of 5-7 days" and then used a syringe to inject the spider's prosoma with glue. By leaving the syringe in place and pumping in or withdrawing glue, the researchers were able to make the spider's legs contract and grip. The article claims that's a vastly easier way to make a gripper than with conventional robotic techniques that require all sorts of tedious fabrication and design efforts. "The necrobotic gripper is capable of grasping objects with irregular geometries and up to 130 percent of its own mass," the article notes.

Necrohydraulics?

[LionKimbro]

How about this.

Necrobotics -- robots made of dead spiders

Necrohydraulics -- using hydraulic principles to animate the dead spider

Necroelectronics -- using electronics to animate the dead spider

I wouldn't say that this is "necrobotics" quite yet. Too much is being done by the person holding the syringe and stuff. I think this should be more properly called, "Necrohydraulics," because we're just demonstrating a particular interaction. It's not yet a robot.

Re:Necrohydraulics?

[LeeLynx]

I was just going to go with 'gross'.

Re:

[Thud457]

necro-spider-bots?!

new Chronicles of Riddick sequel CONFIRMED!

Re:

[DrSpock11]

Using dead spiders to lift up tiny objects. I smell an Ig Nobel Prize in the works.

Or maybe that's just the smell of the spider decomposing...

Re:

[RobinH]

I find it gross too, but to be fair, at some point in my life I've worn articles of clothing made out of dead cow skin... so there's that. At some level it's all what you're used to.

Re:

[JudgeFurious]

It's like the example where most people won't swim in a pool that has a dead body floating in it but have no problem swimming at the beach... in the ocean... which is full of dead bodies so in reality people are fine swimming in a pool with a dead body floating in it. The sticking point is the corpse-to-water ratio.

Re:

[Toad-san]

Me too. But then "Necrohumor" came to mind. And "Necrodisgust". The list goes on and on.

Re: Necrohydraulics?

[ArmoredDragon]

What's the shelf life of the gripper though?

Re:

[Kernel Kurtz]

What's the shelf life of the gripper though?

They will be disposable and replaceable, just like the (cough) larger models.

And you can subscribe via Amazon and save.

Re:

[backslashdot]

I assume that's Amazon as in the actual amazon in Brazil.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Necrobotics sounds more like a diet where you eat corpses.

Anyway, if anything it should be necroarachnobiotics.

Re: Necrohydraulics?

[BytePusher]

Isn't that what most meat eating people do already?

Re:

[tsa]

Yes.

Re:

[muh_freeze_peach]

That would be necrophagia.

Re:

[vbdasc]

In short, Necromancy.

Re:

[azrael29a]

Also add:
Necroeconomics - making money on dead spiders

Texans chose this time of year...

[Applehu Akbar]

...In case any lightning bolts were necessary to complete the project.

I for one welcome...

[cunniff]

...on second thought - oh, hell, no

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Why not? They could mount it on a stick so that you can tickle the back of your neck with it. Next, make one with the legs of a goliath spider!

If it sounds like a horror movie intro...don't

[joe_frisch]

This is a good general rule. Also applies to a certain DOE laboratory that was exposing the world's largest viruses to high intensity X-rays.

The probability of something going wrong is astronomically small, but if it does, just think how dumb you will feel. "Where did the zombie cyborg spiders come from"? Well.. we were trying....

Much like the Springer principle

[raymorris]

You remind me of a principle I've long used, the Springer principle. If it could the topic on the Jerry Springer show, don't do it.

Re:

[PinkyGigglebrain]

kind of like how the "Killer Bees" came about.

What I remember about it was some company in South America, I think it was in Brasil, wanted to make a gentle bee that produced a lot of honey.

So they crossed a very aggressive bee from Africa that makes a LOT of honey with a local species that was docile but didn't produce much honey. What they ended up with was a very aggressive bee that doesn't produce much honey and plot ideas for the plethora of bad "B" movies (pun not entirely unintended).

Apparent

need more proto-blood

[cstacy]

So the PI on this project is the supreme Bio-Vizier of the Divine Order?

Everyday we stray further from God

[BlacKSacrificE]

Nope, that's about it really.

Re:

[muh_freeze_peach]

Please don't include me in your post about God.

Art or Science/Engineering?

[backslashdot]

I feel like this is more of an "art" BS than STEM. What advantages does it have over anything else?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, article says it's easier to use a dead spider than to design and build your own gripper.
Maybe easier for a one-off but It certainly isn't easier to use dead spiders on a commercial scale than to design one gripper that can be injection molded or 3d-printed.
I think the Rice students just wanted to have this knowledge published and used the bland justification of facility to answer the inevitable questions of why.

Nope

[cowtamer]

No. Just no.

Gross

[PIC16F628]

Shame, they want to kill creatures to make it easier for engineering. Are we going back as a society?

Can't grip very big things

[gacattac]

Maybe there's something else they could use to grip bigger things?

Creepometer

[xenog]

Creepometer reading off scale.

wow, that username...never thought I'd see it here

[zennling]

i thought american's had a particularly strong aversion to that word? if submitter is a fellow aussie or pom, it's probably just a nickname of endearment used by his closest friends.

Re:

[know-nothing cunt]

i thought american's had a particularly strong aversion to that word? if submitter is a fellow aussie or pom, it's probably just a nickname of endearment used by his closest friends.

I'm American. I saw it used as an insult here on /. and thought it would be a great username!

You got Slashdot on my Coasttocoast AM

[Potor]

Well, you got Coasttocoast AM in my Slashdot.

Ahhh Yes - Plan 9...

[JoeCommodore]

"..deals with the resurrection of the dead. Long distance electrodes shot into the pineal and pituitary glands of recent dead. Have you attempted any of this plan as yet?"

I guess they have.

Old news?

[kackle]

When I was a kid, I found a lone centipede leg. When I applied light pressure to the section that was attached to the body, the "foot" would curl up as if to grab something. The harder I'd press, the more it would curl. Pretty cool. I put it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer, thinking I could defrost it to experiment later. Mom found out what I was storing and threw it out. :-(

Maybe it's because she was unimpressed with my previous "What happens to a snowball if it sits in the freezer for

Hate to be the one...

[Sloth77]

But allowing a user name such as "no-nothing c*nt" doesn't seem like the smartest move....

Re:Hate to be the one...

[know-nothing cunt]

a user name such as "no-nothing c*nt"

Clearly you deserve it more, but sorry, I got it first!

so, finally, an actual zombie

[roman_mir]

So this is a zombie based robot, if I am not mistaken? :) I can sort of see where this is going...

"Zombotics"

[Tablizer]

- The Scary Sci Fi Shit is Finally Here!

Now maybe GOP can reanimate Ronald Reagan like they once dreamt of. I used to be against the idea, but the orange dude made Ronald seem more palatable.

At least it's environmentally friendly

[BlackSwan]

Wonder if they'll commercialize it as a claw pick up game for kids

Coming next...

[whitroth]

the giant robot spider from the Wild, Wild, Wild West movie.

Not as good as the real thing

[Typing_Ptarmigan]

Necrotic gripper... hmm. An old whore once told me that a hand job is never as good as the real thing.

Colour me skeptical

[Gibgezr]

"The article claims that's a vastly easier way to make a gripper than with conventional robotic techniques that require all sorts of tedious fabrication and design efforts."
Say what? That can't be true in general, can it? Shit, it takes them 5-7 days to kill the spider, then they have to replace a bodily fluid with glue...the whole thing sounds incredibly tedious to me.