/ News
Tiny gecko-inspired robot pulls 100 times its weight
As our computers get ever smaller, we still imagine robots being the same size as us.
We're egotistical like that. We don't quickly learn that small things can pack a devastating sort of power. Think of bombs and, well, the Vatican.
Please therefore watch this video and consider that these are tiny robots lifting more than 100 times their own weight. Do you have any friends that can do that?
The New Scientist tells me that these robots are the handiwork of Stanford mechanical engineers. A bot weighing just 9 grams -- or one fashion model's toenail -- can lift more than a kilogram.
One of the teenybotters can even pull 2,000 times its weight.
The art -- or as engineers like to call it, science -- behind these devices is based on geckos and inchworms. Geckos have very sticky feet, so these engineers created a sticky material upon which these geckbots climb and pull. The adhesive enjoys tiny spikes that spread out under pressure and straighten in order to move.
Their movement is, however, inspired by inchworms. One foot moves forward, the other stays back and supports the load. It's a little like two people carrying a sofa down steps. One moves, as the other supports.
Personally, I found most moving the little bot dragging the Stanford Engineering mug.
David Christensen and Elliott Hawkes, the two engineers behind this creation. They of course have many fine and practical uses in mind for these bots.
Christensen told me: "We are looking to bring the adhesive to market first, but then applications like these will be certainly of interest along with a ton of other things. It's pretty magical stuff to play with. Like a tape that can be turned off and on like a light switch but without any power or electronics."
But we humans are slovenly sloths, desperate for an easy life. Just imagine a tiny little thing pulling your furniture around, until you can choose the right new look for your living room. Or what if you could get one to climb a wall and hang your paintings, so you don't have to stand on a chair?
Perhaps the use most conducive to social harmony would be to have a super geckobot in your pocket when you're out with your loved one. Should they imbibe too much, talk too much, or just bore too much, you can send out the bot and drag your loved one back to the bosom of righteousness.
They'll love you for it in the morning.
Source: http://www.cnet.com/news/tiny-gecko-inspired-robots-lug-massive-weights/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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