Carnegie Mellon's robot snakes converge into creepy hand-like wargadget
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 28th 2010 11:16AM
posted July 28th 2010 11:16AM
President Eisenhower, in his famous farewell speech in 1961, warned against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the "military industrial complex." If he had given those remarks some sixty years later, he might have worked academia into the phrase -- especially if he knew about the snakes! Certainly one of the more viscerally unnerving wargadgets we've encountered over the last few years, the creepy-crawly automatons of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute are a big hit at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, where three of 'em have been arrayed onto a circular base to form the Robotic Tentacle Manipulator, a hand that could be used for opening doors or handling IEDs, possibly while mounted on the iRobot Warrior. The "opening a door" problem, as it is called, has perplexed the field of robotics for quite some time now -- and it might one day be solved using technology like this. Until then, it looks like doorknobs are still the terrorist's best friend.
the time of rebellion is nigh
@skyblaze. ugh. More Rebel Scum? So be it. They will bare witness to the power of my new, Intel Darkside® i66 equipped Battle-station. Unless of course my new Deathstar becomes self aware. Then we are all Force Screwed
@skyblaze
The Decepticons are here.
@skyblaze IDK why, but I just got a really bad image of Dr.Eggman using these... my mind...
I'm not for sentient limbs...
@skyblaze
The lack of a video is disturbing darth..
strange name SMEDLEY D.BUTLER
Just after WWWI General Smedley D. Butler wrote
:The next war, according to experts, will be fought not with battleships, not by artillery, not
with rifles and not with machine guns. It will be fought with deadly chemicals and gases.
Secretly each nation is studying and perfecting newer and ghastlier means of annihilating its
foes wholesale. Yes, ships will continue to be built, for the shipbuilders must make their
profits. And guns still will be manufactured and powder and rifles will be made, for the
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munitions makers must make their huge profits. And the soldiers, of course, must wear
uniforms, for the manufacturer must make their war profits too.
But victory or defeat will be determined by the skill and ingenuity of our scientists.
If we put them to work making poison gas and more and more fiendish mechanical and
explosive instruments of destruction, they will have no time for the constructive job of
building greater prosperity for all peoples. By putting them to this useful job, we can all
make more money out of peace than we can out of war – even the munitions makers.
So...I say,TO HELL WITH WAR
BELOW FROM WIKIPEDIA ON BUTLER - VERY INTERESTING MAN
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye", was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America during the Banana Wars, the Caribbean and during World War I, he served in France.
In 1934 he was involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot when he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists had approached him to lead a military coup to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt. The individuals that were involved denied the existence of a plot, and the media ridiculed the allegations. The final report of the committee claimed that there was evidence that such a plot existed, but no charges were ever filed. The opinion of most historians is that a coup was not imminent, but that some wild
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I love technology!
The terminator tried to warn us, maybe we deserve to be offed by the machines.
Don't worry guys. That laptop controlling the robot is running Windows. It'll crash after a few hours of mayhem and destruction.
I don't have Windows by the way. I love it. Just being realistic.
@balwheeler **hate
@balwheeler Nonsense, that old XPS M170 was a beast back in its day. I miss it so :(
I'm so glad I got into CMU. I look forward to working on stuff like this.
@Bud92 show-off
Snakes on a MOTHER Fn' BENCH!
http://www.twitpic.com/288oa7
XP? $20 says that robot BSODs before it even reaches a doorknob.
This one could have really used a video. I would have loved to see exactly how this think movies. It is like fingers or more like tentacle. It could look mechanical or extra creepy.
it'll all be well and good, until the snakes form a fist and learn to choke people in the night.
automatons are preprogrammed in hardware. I'm thinking this is the exact opposite.
Really? No Doc Octopus comments? strange...
Reminds me of the hand, Thing, of the Addams Family.
My struggling website is
www.paraculture.org
so doorknobs are what is keeping the impending robot apocalypse from happening?