Underwater robot has sense of touch, class and style
By Laura June 
posted May 7th 2009 10:23AM
posted May 7th 2009 10:23AM
At the Fraunhofer Institute in Bremen, Germany, a group of researchers, in conjunction with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI, is developing an underwater robot with a sense of touch. The octopus-esque robot is equipped with a strain gauge which triggers electrical resistance changes when an obstacle is encountered. The strain gauges -- which are printed onto the robot -- which are ten micrometers wide (about half the width of a human hair), are made up of atomized nanoparticles, and are extremely sensitive. The researchers intend for the robot to be able to distinguish between actual obstacles and water currents. The robot's first stop will be a public trade show at the end of May in Nuremberg, after which it will presumably make it's way to the dark depths of the sea to meet up with Captain Nemo and the giant squid.
well then where is it's top hat?
At first I thought it was some sort of genital stimulating device. The size of it isn't all that apparent without some comparison scale.
I think you should probably keep this away from your genitals.
I was actually thinking just the opposite. ;)
That's quite possibly the scariest looking machine I've ever seen outside of fiction.....
When the robots rise up, keep the hell away from the water!
The One will be able to stop that thing just by thinking it.
I think I would soil myself if I saw this thing come at me while I was swimming.
This is the machine that ripped out the "bug" out of Neo's gut in the Matrix!
no no no. it's the one that unscrewed the thing from his head when he was in the pod making lovely BTU electricity.
@FNG you are correct, that is definitely what that is
Um...how big is this thing? I'm imagining the central engine is about the size of those personal underwater transport things that people can use to jet around while scuba diving. If that's the case, then those arms would be about 8ft long when extended.
This is the stuff that nightmares are made of.
Also, it could probably be easily weaponized (folded, at my imagined size, it could fit into a torpedo shell on a submarine). Shoot it towards enemy fleet, and let it go to work silently slipping from ship to ship, placing charges autonomously. Like the underwater version of a Predator drone.
Why not just shoot a torpedo?
A torpedo only destroys one ship, and it's harder to deny that you were ever there. Make this thing's final activity to scuttle itself (charges wait 24 hours to blow), and there's no way to prove that you even did anything.
The cost of losing one of these is easily justified when you sink half a dozen enemy ships.
Quadropus!!!!
Reminds me a little of the machine that rebuilt Lee-Loo (Dallas multipass) in "The 5th Element".
Keep it away from me!!
Why, oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill?
Yeah seriously...this thing looks like the squid sentinels from the Matrix.
Thank you for a new character to add to my Nightmares. Really they didn't have to make it look like it was coming to grab and tare you apart. Could have just looked like an eight leg robot squid.
You can see why it's a rendering not a picture, because it's not practically possible to make a functioning thing like is shown, you need hydraulics and those need tubes and you need leverage so they could not be smoothly inside the limbs and you you need power so the body is way to small, it's just a scifi show thing not something we can currently fabricate.
I'm surprised not everybody here knows that and I'm surprised the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft would try to make us believe it's possible.
I agree plus even if it could be functioning I have to imagine trying to fly that thing underwater would be next to impossible given its structures. With the props all in the rear, whenever this thing would move forward it would do a complete nose dive. Add to the fact that if the arms were ever fully extended forwards, it would be so nose heavy the thing would nose dive even faster. Plus, judging by the rendering, there is no buoyancy material attached to the robot further adding to the sinking...
It could also be equipped with tools like welding torch to cut holes in their hull. It could even release a net into their propeller systems to stop the ship and then, once the ship was taken over, remove them. You could take over an enemies fleet this way.
Looks a little "grabby"
that looks like a metallic headcrab >/
Oh! Now, that's just creepy looking!
But does it play MP3s?
But will it blend? No really, please blend it, it frightens me!
I was just admiring http://digitalblasphemy.com/mpages/getreview.shtml?i=nanocyte&t=Nanocyte
and then I stumbled upon this. Methinks there will be a theme to my nightmares tonight.
- Monica
That is Terminator, the succubus edition....