Comments on: Goo

Goo

mhjb — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:57:40 -0800

Amorphous blob robot takes first steps (SLYT)

By: Nomiconic

Nomiconic — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:00:13 -0800

I can't take it seriously unless it sounds like it's made of bees.

By: felix betachat

felix betachat — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:04:13 -0800

Yes, but can they teach it to keep a dungeon clean?

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:12:23 -0800

So, so, freaky.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:21:56 -0800

Fucking awesome. Mmmmmm.... jammable slurry sounds delicious. Did anybody else notice that it was an inflatable 20-sider? This is like some Lovecraft-obsessed role-playing robot nerd's dream/nightmare come to life.

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:22:14 -0800

AKIRAAAAAAAA

By: The Deej

The Deej — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:23:10 -0800

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

By: TooFewShoes

TooFewShoes — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:24:06 -0800

...and I will keep him and call him Squishy. And he will be my Squishy. Come here little Squishy...

By: drdanger

drdanger — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:26:05 -0800

Soon it will be hunting down Patrick McGoohan.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:26:32 -0800

Whooa! I was not expecting it to throb and pulse like that. The techno beat was also startling.

By: You Should See the Other Guy

You Should See the Other Guy — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:29:09 -0800

The techno beat was also startling. This was the original soundtrack.

By: mark242

mark242 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:30:17 -0800

We need guns. Lots of guns.

By: Fupped Duck

Fupped Duck — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:33:27 -0800

unleash a few thousand of those on mars to scare any life forms out of their hiding places.

By: you're a kitty!

you're a kitty! — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:37:51 -0800

The stop-motion animation was also pretty cute.

By: niccolo

niccolo — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:41:19 -0800

Gosh, the next 20 years are going to be fun, methinks. I just know a robot explosion is coming!

By: JaredSeth

JaredSeth — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:48:53 -0800

Oh man, now all they have to do is light up SkyNet and we're toast.

By: Hardcore Poser

Hardcore Poser — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:57:46 -0800

Here I was expecting Rush Limbaugh had gone cyborg. Well, this is neat too.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:01:50 -0800

These things will be mirroring your facial expressions in a few years.

By: vibrotronica

vibrotronica — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:04:32 -0800

Here I was expecting Rush Limbaugh had gone cyborg. Rush Limbaugh went cyborg a long time ago.

By: nonspecialist

nonspecialist — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:06:57 -0800

I loved the stop-motion animation for explaining the concept -- and right up until the prototype inflated and started moving, I was thinking "cool!" Then it moved, and I got an instant visceral reaction of "KILL IT WITH FIRE". But now I just think it's cool again.

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:18:31 -0800

WHEREAS I am a complete human of being of sound body and mind, and WHEREAS one of these things or their grandkids will eventually kill me for "the horrible persecution visited upon our Furby ancestors", and WHEREAS I really like saying WHEREAS, the METAFILTER MEMBER who manages to launch the freaky blob-bot and the rival hivemind controlling it into the sun shall be entitled to collect ALL (100%) of MY STUFF upon my death.

By: Jon_Evil

Jon_Evil — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:36:32 -0800

Rush Limbaugh went cyborg a long time ago. "He's more machine now, than man; twisted and evil." [/benkenobi]

By: Rumple

Rumple — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:51:37 -0800

Sponsored by DARPA. I suspect this will end up being used for OtherCulture Jamming as much as anything.

By: Awakened

Awakened — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:56:39 -0800

Awww, they blow up so fast...

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:22:49 -0800

Amorphous blob robot takes first steps I'm sorry, but that blob is totally morphous.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:40:52 -0800

That techno soundtrack was amazingly out of place. I would have voted for the maddening, repetitive piping of daemon flutes.

By: davejay

davejay — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:43:27 -0800

Morphous like a FOX!

By: mhjb

mhjb — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:43:53 -0800

According to Google at least, morphous == amorphous*. therefore a = 1? or ∞? or 0? Discuss.

By: davejay

davejay — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:47:09 -0800

For a better soundtrack, load this up (but don't start the video on the left until the video on the right is at 1:54.)

By: davejay

davejay — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:51:55 -0800

By the way, props on the FPP title.

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:56:28 -0800

drdanger mentioned it first, but we need a video.

By: quadog

quadog — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:19:57 -0800

I've often thought we always needed spontaneous robotic nut sacks.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:39:40 -0800

"No, no psionicists; If you ask to play one again I'm going to rip out your nuts and replace them with D20s" "Huh, that gives me an idea."

By: sredefer

sredefer — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:57:31 -0800

@davejay Is there a video in existence that yackity sax won't make super hilarious?

By: fleacircus

fleacircus — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:06:04 -0800

Benny Hill, ironically.

By: jock@law

jock@law — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:30:59 -0800

Heck yes, this is ridiculously cool

By: JHarris

JHarris — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:25:01 -0800

[ Aww. ] [ Isn't it cute? ] [ Of course, it's only a matter of time before it comes for you and your family. ] [ Probably best to kill it now. ] [ I saw a spiky death pit over there. ] [ -With concern, the Sign Painter ]

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:36:52 -0800

I can has iShoggoth?

By: mccarty.tim

mccarty.tim — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:48:12 -0800

This will not end well.

By: Jilder

Jilder — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:14:55 -0800

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:28:39 -0800

Thank god we haven't figured out how to power things like this efficiently.

By: edguardo

edguardo — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:57:18 -0800

i watched this on mute in the library; do the cords connecting to it supply the air/fluid/whatever? if so, what are the prospects for storing the air within the blob itself? wouldn't that decrease its overall, uh, squishability, since you'd have some kind of sac inside which might prevent extreme distortions? if you can't make it roam free, then all you've got is an interesting appendage. :/

By: Big_B

Big_B — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:12:11 -0800

I am always saddened when I see tremendously cool robots with thick ropes of computer cords tethering them to their "brains". How cool would it be to see that little guy rolling over the tundras, bouncing gleeful and free, out in the wild as I'm sure its creators intended? In any case, I can't fear anything that could be lobotomised with the judicious use of garden shears. My SO and I were talking about this, and assuming all those are doing is supplying air and or an electrical charge, it wouldn't seem to difficult to embed a small pump and transmitter inside to free it. Very cool stuff though.

By: Humanzee

Humanzee — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:44:01 -0800

A friend of mine from grad school is either working on this exact project, or one very similar. They built a robot that works via jamming of granular materials with DARPA money. My friend said it moved very slowly (sure enough, in the lower right hand corner of the video, you can see "x8" written). So instead of maddening drums and piping flutes, think maybe... tuba or something ---the chief tactical strength of this robot would be its ability to imitate a stationary object. I'll let you guys in on a secret. My friend and his advisor want to study the physics of granular materials. They need money. Physicists can't get money now (well, it's much more difficult than in the past). So they built a robot. It's not so sad, because it's a really cool robot, but it's a little sad because granular materials are cool, very complicated, and absolutely ubiquitous. Our lack of understanding of jamming causes loss of money and deaths. Plus it should be feasible for a scientist to study granular materials because they're cool. Well, that's my opinion, although I can understand non-scientists feeling differently.

By: Pantengliopoli

Pantengliopoli — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:15:54 -0800

Our lack of understanding of jamming causes loss of money and deaths. Not that I disagree with your premise, but what benefits would a deeper understand of "jamming" reveal? Very cool project, thanks for posting it.

By: Jilder

Jilder — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:41:42 -0800

My SO and I were talking about this, and assuming all those are doing is supplying air and or an electrical charge, it wouldn't seem to difficult to embed a small pump and transmitter inside to free it. It's probably attached to the computer controlling its movements.

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:53:27 -0800

Ah, Science, are there any hairs on the back of my neck you cannot make stand at attention?

By: Humanzee

Humanzee — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:33:11 -0800

I think this page offers a good short summary of some of the problems associated with jamming. In short, granular materials can have a rapid, unexpected transition between jammed and unjammed states. This can cause flow blockages and structural failures when flowing granular materials jam. It can cause avalanches, sinkholes, or liquefaction when granular materials unjam. It would be hugely beneficial to be able to predict and/or control these transitions (and we can, to some extent now).

By: Pantengliopoli

Pantengliopoli — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:41:40 -0800

Of course -- thanks Humanzee. That makes sense now that you've said it, but I couldn't put my finger on what the benefits could be. We've had some significant landslides in Washington in the last couple of years that were probably a result of liquefaction.

By: davejay

davejay — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:04:01 -0800

@davejay Is there a video in existence that yackity sax won't make super hilarious? @seredefer no, no there is not.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:51:12 -0800

Granular materials also transmit a lot of their stress through force chains or contact networks (some good descriptions here)— the resulting behavior in bulk can be pretty counterintuitive; eg, you can't safely treat the contents of a grain silo as a liquid.

By: Capt Jingo

Capt Jingo — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:41:16 -0800

how do we make it kill?