Here ya go:
Posted on 04/03/2007 8:41:37 AM PDT by nypokerface
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Remember the robot in Terminator 2 that oozed through tiny cracks and then reformed itself? So does the U.S. Defense Department.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency last week issued a request for proposals to develop a "chemical robot" made of soft, flexible materials that can squeeze through openings smaller than its static dimensions and then reconstitute itself to perform a task military task.
"Nature provides many examples of ChemBot functionality. Many soft creatures, including mice, octopi, and insects, readily traverse openings barely larger than their largest "hard" component, via a variety of reversible mechanisms," DARPA stated.
While the Defense Department makes frequent use of robots in warfare -- to disarm improvised bombs, or see around corners or upstairs -- their size and structure limit the spaces they can get into.
"Often the only available points of entry are small openings in buildings, walls, under doors, etc. In these cases, a robot must be soft enough to squeeze or traverse through small openings, yet large enough to carry an operationally meaningful payload," DARPA stated in a solicitation last week. "ChemBots represent the convergence of soft materials chemistry and robotics to create a fundamentally new class of soft meso-scale robots."
DARPA is looking for robot prototypes about the size of a softball that travel a distance of 5 meters at a quarter of a meter per minute, collapse to a tenth of its size and then squeeze through a 1 centimeter opening and reconstitute to its original shape in 15 seconds.
White papers on proposals are due May 3, 2007 and full proposals are due July 2, 2007.
Darn! My wife cleaned out the garage and threw all mine out.
Here ya go:
There is a new class of electrically conductive polymers that should be able to accomplish this.
How about "Terminator 1" before we get fancy with "Terminator 2"?
That reminds me, I saw a preview for a Transformers movie last night.
What about a general purpose self-reconstituting autonomous robot that would see what task military task needs done and does it without further instruction?
Jihadi's use cheap roadside bombs to defeat a superpower....much better bang for the buck IMHO.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
avg_freeper wants a beer fetching monkey
They have cool videos and prototype information over on their website.
Bring on the FemBots baby!
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