Not quite. But we have snakes:
A robot snake, capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, is on the way to join the the IDF's hi-tech arsenal.
According to a Channel 2 report the spying robot, which is about two meters long and covered in military camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer.
Able to bend its joints so well that it can squeeze through very tight spaces, the new device will be used to find people buried under collapsed buildings. The snake is also able to arch its body, allowing it to see over obstacles through its head camera. Researchers studied the movements of live snakes in order to create the most natural and realistic robotic version.
According to a Channel 2 report the spying robot, which is about two meters long and covered in military camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer.
Able to bend its joints so well that it can squeeze through very tight spaces, the new device will be used to find people buried under collapsed buildings. The snake is also able to arch its body, allowing it to see over obstacles through its head camera. Researchers studied the movements of live snakes in order to create the most natural and realistic robotic version.
And rats:
Agnes Guillot dreams of one day seeing a giant 50-centimetre (20-inch) -long white rat called Psikharpax scuttling fearlessly around her lab.
If so, it will be time to scream... but out of joy, rather than fear, for it could be a turning point in the history of robotics.
Psikharpax -- named after a cunning king of the rats, according to a tale attributed to Homer -- is the brainchild of European researchers who believe it may push back a frontier in artificial intelligence.
Psikharpax -- named after a cunning king of the rats, according to a tale attributed to Homer -- is the brainchild of European researchers who believe it may push back a frontier in artificial intelligence.
via. The boring rational reason for this is that robot autonomy is considered achievable at the rat and snake level. But maybe as well there are a whole bunch of people tinkering away, doing hard sums under the glow of fluorescents, using pinpoint concentration on fundamentally life – less enterprises. You can see how the human imagination might burst the banks enclosed on it in these circumstances.
Anyway, it gives the layman the opportunity to pitch in with important questions. Questions like: how about meerkats? How about meerkats with telescopic necks?
Yes, life in Gaza will increasingly resemble that of the human survivors of the War against the machines in Terminator 2 - huddled around a broken TV while exterminator robots seek out their underground refuge.
Posted by: Fellow Traveller | June 11, 2009 at 06:45 PM