Waalbot – signs of the impending robotocalypse

I am so sorry for once leading you, my brilliant and far above-average reader, to believe that the coming zombie uprising was one of the greatest fears we had to face. Apparently, the robots have been amassing numbers and improving their designs for long enough to be the real threat to humanity. I don’t know how soon the robots will take over, but I believe the wall-climbing Waalbot is further proof of the superiority of robots. We humans have Spiderman, and, if you are to believe The Simpsons Movie, Spiderpig. I present to you now early images of the robotic army of the future – the Waalbot:

waalbot4.jpgApproach: The tri-leg Waalbot will use dry adhesion to stick to walls and ceilings as it climbs. The tri-leg design uses simple rotary actuators for a singly degree of freedom motion, but includes passive joints and elastic flexures to allow this motion to provide the preload and peeling forces necessary to climb using dry adhesion. A PIC microcontroller is used to control the motion of the robot and onboard power makes the system fully autonomous.

. . .

Other Wall Climbing Robots: Geckobot, Compliant Geckobot, Tank


You may look at the image and claim me a fool for phearing such a miniscule droid, but just like with little rat dogs – sometimes the smallest ones have the most fight in them. And when the robots are swarming you, and your enemy-bot sensor indicates hundreds of them are in front of you and behind you – remember they are in the ceiling, and you should check the vent shafts, too.

The site also has a few cool videos, including a sped-up movie of the bot climbing an acrylic wall done last year. I imagine more work will allow the designers to increase the weight or carrying capacity of the waalbot and we’ll end up with a more useful critter in the future. (via Spatial Robots)

[tags]Robots, The coming robotocalypse, Robots will take over, Gecko, Dry adhesion, Wall climbing robots[/tags]

A single sheet of paper

Some time back, I discovered this website hosting images of what I consider to be artwork, generated from a single sheet of paper. If you hit the page and just look at the couple of sheets, you might think it’s OK, but fail to be impressed. Trust me — scroll down. Whoever did this is a master of patience and cutting skills.

singlesheet-artwork01.jpg singlesheet-artwork02.jpg

I have no idea how this could even be done, but to date, I believe my most artistic work has been something on the order of my creating some marble-ish spheres in raytracer POV-Ray. I can envision artistic goals, but lack the skills to achieve them. So things like cutting paper into cool final forms really impress me.

[tags]A single sheet of paper, Mad cutting skills[/tags]

Scary image – chair leg through eye-socket and into throat

It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye, right? Well, for this happy-go-lucky club hopper, apparently things are still all fun and games.

bb_chair-through-eye-x_ray.jpgTHESE X-ray images show the leg of a chair embedded into the eye socket of a Melbourne teenager who miraculously survived a random attack outside a city nightclub earlier this year.

The images of teenager Shafique el-Fahkri at the Royal Melbourne Hospital were taken as a team of five surgeons prepared for the complex three-hour operation that would save his life and his eye.

After leaving intensive care, Mr Fahkri spent a month in hospital and today has 95 per cent of his sight back.

Yes, you read that right. He took a chair leg through his eye socket and down into his throat, yet didn’t lose the eye and has nearly recovered full vision back. Amazingly, the victim claims to bear no ill-will towards his attacker, and seems to not be helping police in charges against the aggressor. (via boingboing)

[tags]All fun and games, A chair through the eye, X-Ray shows chair leg through eye[/tags]