Self-Replicating Robots! VIDEO!

This is incredible. If it's real...

Check out Code.Box.SK News report

The news report is only short, and to get to the full one, you have to sign up at news.independent.co.uk site. Maybe bugmenot . Any way, the short bit of the story is good, but it's the link at the bottom of the code.box.sk page that is truely amazing:

recent comments:
Here's a vid of the robots in action

I watched the video, and it's truely amazing. It shows some organic-y looking structure fold over a few times, then connect to another structure nearby, then continue folding around and making various shapes and stuff

It doesn't look to be remote controlled, because it all flows so smoothly. And it doesn't look to be 3D rendered.

This could pave the way for robots that can rebuild themselves after taking a hit (a-la the evil terminator in T2?)

Can anyone shed some light on this 'robot'?

Oh, and here's the Direct Link for those who don't want to jump between pages. It's a must-save. Trust me!

Wow, if thats real then thats amazing. The programming for such a thing had to be amazingly complex. To think, if robots like these could actually produce those modules, well living organisms would have competition. Then again, what would be the definition of life if suddenly these artificial wonders were to self replicate in such a way.

No these are real, allthough they are not self-replicating just self-assembling. And why is this in the Weaponry forum this doesn't resemble anything that could be used as a weapon(eg They ain't no Nanobots) But that aside that Video was really cool. I want some of those things to play with heh.

msnbc.msn.com...

It's definitely real. (and extremely cool ) It's not very practical, yet, but it is a definite step forward in robotics, and the techniques developed here will be extremely useful in designing future robots. (did I mention it is extremely cool, too? )

As an engineering student, the most impressive part of the design to me is the shape of the cubes, the location of the joints and movable parts so that they are able to move so fluidly. The programming should be fairly straightforward to do, actually. (well, it's probably not a short or simple program, but to clarify myself, I mean that there's probably nothing new in the programming that hasn't been known for years; most programmers could write a program to do that, if they were given unprogrammed blocks)

Notice that one of the cubes is always connected to one of the plates on the table. That is where it draws its electrical power from. I think the magnets inside must be electromagnets, since i saw blocks detaching from one another during one contained program. I'm not sure if there are microprocessors inside each block or if an external device is wirelessly communicating with them (or maybe with wires through the plates?) I'd guess there are microprocessors in each. There must be a way for the blocks to 'know' when other blocks are connected and where they are; this is probably done through electrical connections when the blocks grab each other.

I'd be curious to know how much power the robot consumes as it is working, and some of the other technical stuff that the article didn't go into.

(oh yes, in case I forgot to mention, this is extremely cool )

I'd give you a WATS Grayda, except that I've used them all up this month So instead I will give you this:

(edit to fix the hailing guys, they were all on one line and messed up the post)





[edit on 29-5-2005 by DragonsDemesne]

As said above, pretty cool, but nothing to do with weaponry, and no real practical use. Unless they could from some kind of tank/weapon it would be pointless.

Yah, it's true, this isn't a weapon, but it could have big possibilities for the weaponry community (I'm looking at you, American Government )

Imagine a robot that could do it's own repairs. If someone blew it up, and it lost a 'leg', then it could find another unit, and trade parts until it was good enough to fight again. It would be like frankenstein, with mix-and-match parts.

Or it could team up with other units until it was twice as big as it's rival. The possibilities are endless...

While these are mere fantasies created in my own head, They can be done, and do have a practical use outside in the field.

So that's why I chose weaponry for the category

A WATS? cool! Tho I have no idea what they do

I'll keep an eye out for more vid links and stuff! Keep your comments coming

heres another moduler bot called "PollyBOT"



these are a few videos of the "G1v4" model in action:
conforming loop:
www2.parc.com...

here it is climbing a fence like a catapiller/inch worm:
www2.parc.com...

here it is riding a tricicle for cryin out load...
www2.parc.com...

heres the G1v5 changing from a loop to a snake configuration:
www2.parc.com...

heres the G2 changing from loop, to snake, to spider configuration, apperantly there was some manual docking that was edited out , but it does apear that it changes from snake form to spider form with no outside assistance.
www2.parc.com...


[edit on 2-6-2005 by Urn]

OOOOOOO....heres another one....this one is SWEET....

it's called the "M-TRAN II: Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot"

check it out....i cant even explain the video...it's just...COOL!!!
(i think its remote controlled though...)
unit.aist.go.jp...

heres two of them joining together...
unit.aist.go.jp...

Urn, thanks for the Videos! I'll be watching them later. Too bad the last 2 are in a crappy format though Why oh why don't people just use regular old MPEG I will never figure out *sigh*

[edit on 2-6-2005 by sardion2000]

I have actually read alot about self-replicating robots, but until today I thought it was all still theory. The potential for these robots is great, but there are many things that could go wrong.

For example, if a self-replicating machine, be accident or mal-intent, was ever programed to continue to copy itself indefinitely it would be nearly unstoppable.

It is, like most advances, both a blessing and a curse.

Holy cow! Thanks Urn! The video of it turning from a snake to a spider was incredible! Even if there was some manual docking required, that step could be eliminated! I watched them all but the last 2, I have to get realplayer (Or put it on my mobile phone! Easy )

Chimaera, I do agree about the dangers of self-repairing (or self replicating) robot. I said:

This could pave the way for robots that can rebuild themselves after taking a hit (a-la the evil terminator in T2?)

And that dude was freaky. If it could repair or replicate, then that would be frightening, although humans are smarter than computers will ever be, so the robots running out of control wouldn't be a problem

Originally posted by Grayda
And that dude was freaky. If it could repair or replicate, then that would be frightening, although humans are smarter than computers will ever be, so the robots running out of control wouldn't be a problem

I find it strange, but sadly unsurprising, that there are scientists at this very moment working on A.I. comparable to the "Terminator."

I think our curiosity will be our undoing. Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't nuked ourselves to death yet.

I'm surprised as well. However if we do nuke ourselves, it just takes 2 people to start again. Wiping out several billion people is a very difficult project, even for a Terminator. And maybe with only 2 people, they would be smart enough to limit breeding, and also limit the resources we consume, with the knowledge we have gained.

Then again, what if the last 2 people on earth were polititians? Crap...

ALERT TO EVERYONE: Nukes are NOT the answer!

Think what would happen if George Bush and John Howard were the last 2 alive? They would live for about 5 minutes coz neither would consent to gay marriage

hmm... I seem to have deviated from the topic. Oh well, you get that

It's just a bunch of magnets making pieces stick together... that's controllable by a computer. The contact points by the magnets are conduits for information connnected to the cpu that you can't see because it's main connection in under the wood board. Someone is remotely conducting the procedure with commands telling the objects when to detatch and when to turn and so on. Not real time controlls though, probably done through some script...

Some of the movies I've watched say otherwise. The one of the unit moving along like a snake doesn't look computerised. Because when the man turns it over, it adapts and shifts it's position. This can be done using scripts, but it can also be done with AI (Like those robotic dogs that can right themselves after falling).

I believe they aren't human controlled (At least in some of them), but need human help to get by.

I do see what you mean with the cables and stuff being hidden under the table. That was my first clue that these were fakes, but reading more and more about it, it does seem possible to do this without human intervention / interactivity. Be it by script or otherwise

the robot in the videos i posted in my second post are wireless (self contained power source), but are remote contrled....

Transformers, more than meets the eye!

While kinda cool to watch, it is still just fairly simple robotics and fairly simple programming (simple, that is, for people that know what they are doing). There is nothing here that appears to be an advance forward in the robotics or AI fields. As for the movement of the cubes, diagonally placed joints are used in the automobile industry assembly line rbots, as multiple diagonally placed joints can provide a large range of motion (as is illustrated by the cubes) The magnets and connectivity points are cool though. As for the program driving it, a series of steps that tell cube 1 move this way, cube 2 move that way, yada yada. You can see the breaks in the film where the program must stop so someone can add more blocks in specific places in order for the robot to build more.

SimonColynAdrian makes a good point. If this thing IS AI, how does it know where the other cubes are? It has no Camera to detect it, which lead me to think it could use a wireless technology such as Bluetooth, or (I can't think of any other wireless technologies ). Bluetooth is a inexpensive way of communicating over a 10 meter radius, BUT is not mentioned in the descriptions I've read.

But the one where it forms into a ring, then a snake, then a spider is also cool. Even if it needed help, that would be cool if it was AI.

And plus, this is a good start to the world of robotics that can build themselves up. And data moving through the magnets is also cool (Personally I've never seen this done before). AI in this sucker would be awesome

Nice, I'de like to have one of those... but what would they be used in ordinary life... Military, or ordinary industry...?

This thread has been moved to multimedia uploads. It does fit better here, tho I still see it as a potential for weaponry.

In a manufacturing (industry) sense, this could be a 'self-assembling' item (ie a toy for a child or something), but in the military sense, an item that could find other 'damaged items' and build itself up to become bigger. Sure that may be years and years away, but we already have the knowledge to do it, it's the raw man/woman-hours that need to be put in to get this off the bench...

I seem to be repeating myself (!?!), but don't know why... . Maybe coz I can't recall who I've told about something