Modlab makes Foambot!

The Modular Robotics Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania have created a small robot that can create other robots, using some mechanical parts... and foam!

There is a class of missions that by their very nature are Unknown Challenge Missions. In these missions, we must commit robot hardware to the task before knowing exactly what it is that these robots must do. Examples include disaster recovery and other first response tasks, intelligence gathering missions, troop support missions against an adapting adversary, and planetary exploration.

The robot can be formed to function in virtually any terrain, making it very versatile. Here is one. Images are worth a thousand times! And it's only a beginning!



Link to Modlab.

Enjoy, ATS!

I see the creators never bothered to watch The Terminator. With the government finishing up skynet a few months ago, I for one look forward to our new robotic oversears.

reply to post by Xcathdra


I had a thought about the Terminator, too... Made of foam instead of crushing metal.

If they could make folding moulds to make a more precise and structured skeleton, this could bring it to a new level of sophistication.

Hmm...

Well, at the rate technology is going, robots will rise to power after Congress runs the country and value of the dollar off a cliff.

Is it sad that I'm looking forward to a 'robotocracy?'

reply to post by Aim64C


Yes, it is sad, knowing it will be those who will destroy the world as we know it that are more than likely to impose on us a robotic police force.

Drones are already here. Surely they are preparing something for the land and the seas.

But as far as the one presented here goes, I think it will help in more ways than it will be troublesome. At least, for now...

reply to post by NowanKenubi

The robot can be formed to function in virtually any terrain, making it very versatile. Here is one. Images are worth a thousand times! And it's only a beginning!

As long as its made on a non-stick polyurethane sheet..

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Your right. But surely they will find a way around this. Maybe a polyurethane spraying sheet?

But seriously, in the case of having to explore a ravaged place, they would bring the sheet, so... And as I said in a previous post, maybe they could use some kind of folding mould in which they could spray the foam.