…but close.
From Military.com headlines:
Killer robots which can change their shape to squeeze under doors and through cracks in walls to track their prey are moving from the realms of science fiction to the front line in the fight against terrorism.
The US military has signed a GBP 1.6m deal with a technology firm to design robots which are intelligent enough to work out how to wiggle through small spaces to reach their target.
The action film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, featured a seemingly unstoppable killer robot played by Robert Patrick. The machine was made from liquid metal and could change its form to slide under doors and walk through iron bars.
America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Army Research Office has awarded the contract to iRobot, which has developed other robots for the military.
They want scientists to come up with a design for a tiny robot able to move under its own power and change shape so it can get through gaps less than half an inch wide.
The US administration has not said what it wants the robot to do but its specification says: “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.”
In an effort to inspire creative ideas, the US military has pointed to examples in nature of creatures which are able to squeeze through narrow gaps and change their form.
Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairwoman of iRobot, said: “Through this programme, robots that reconstitute size, shape and functionality after traversal through complex environments will transcend the pages of science fiction to become real tools for soldiers in theatre.”
But Scottish-based experts believe the challenge may be too much even for the US military’s budgets and technology.
Mike Cates, professor of physics at Edinburgh University, said: “There are materials which can change their shapes and then regain them. There are alloys, known as memory metals, which are used in glasses and which can regain their shape. The difficulty in this case is all the other elements which need to be added to a device such as this, such as the circuitry and some form of system to propel it.”
Brian Baglow, of technology firm Indoctrimat, said: “As well as designing the materials for this, the sensor systems will be a problem. It’s not easy for them to work out where the gaps are which they can get through.”
– Christian
Or better yet, Tom Selleck’s movie Runaway, with bug-like robots that could flatten themselves enough to go under doors.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088024/
If we can design computers one molecule at a time then designing an interlaced system in a liquid metal environment doesn’t seem so strange. Why not create an architecture based on DNA in metal similar to memory metal. With new super computers we might be able to translate design elements into hardware in the not to distant future. Such a robot would also be able to walk around invisible, fly, travel under water, and even function in space which was all hinted at in T2, but would have made a poor movie.
Yeah, and I think they are going to call them the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad robots. Cause if you took all the hot air out of Ahmadinejad, he would be able to slide under a doorway…
sounds like utter bollocks, pure waste of money but hey you yanks are damn good at throwing cash away with absurd procurment and R&D programs. Whole story made me LOL. No doubt when if you yanks get this to work, fat chance though, if you did you’d only gloat and tell the whole world how it works complete with the blueprints for all to see, pretty much like you do with all mil projects therefore letting the enemy develop its own copy for a tenth the price. I expect the drawings for this thing and how its going to work to appear on some news network within two years if it works out.
Think “Minority Report”, where the little spider robots swarmed over the building Tom Cruise was in. All we’ll have to do is look in all bathtubs and all the terrorists will be in there, perfect!
“sounds like utter bollocks, pure waste of money but hey you yanks are damn good at throwing cash away with absurd procurment and R&D programs.“
Yeah, Jimbo, like the Internet. Just look at how that total waste of money turned out.
Nay-sayers always think if they have not seen it, it can’t be done. Think of all the amazing inventions that followed after someone’s crazy ideas, then perhaps you may reconsider you opinion about its possibilies.
” Real usefull..[sic]“
I said “a shape of a jointed piece of paper” not “made out of paper” Jimbo Jones. Apparently, your reading comprehension is right up there with your spelling. When you get those two figured out, we can move on to creativity.
Bill Tolbert, amen brother!
About 2 yrs ago, this was noted. http://www.dna.caltech.edu/Papers/DNAorigami-nature.pdf
If you can imagine using microfluidics and things like Sandia’s structures here — http://mems.sandia.gov/gallery/images_gears_and_transmissions.html
– well, trust me that there are a thousand ways to have something small enough to tuck itself into a sliver of space yet deliver a very real level of threat and/or recon.
It is utter foolishness to think that it isn’t already done by someone somewhere…
There is more about the military robot transformation at TacticalWarfighter
video, pics and updates on Project Horizon
http://www.tacticalwarfightergear.com/tacticalgear/catalog/Military_Robots.php