Mechanisms in Today's News
erco
Posts: 20,256
A welcome break from today's other bad news.
Optimus Prime Birthday Cake Really Transforms: http://toyland.gizmodo.com/this-transforming-optimus-prime-birthday-cake-is-just-a-1726713463
Paper V-6 Engine Runs on "Compressed Air" in Balloon: http://bangshift.com/bangshiftxl/amazing-video-watch-a-tiny-v6-engine-made-of-paper-run-with-compressed-air-absolutely-amazing/
Optimus Prime Birthday Cake Really Transforms: http://toyland.gizmodo.com/this-transforming-optimus-prime-birthday-cake-is-just-a-1726713463
Paper V-6 Engine Runs on "Compressed Air" in Balloon: http://bangshift.com/bangshiftxl/amazing-video-watch-a-tiny-v6-engine-made-of-paper-run-with-compressed-air-absolutely-amazing/
Comments
A micro-controller without machinery cannot become a true robot. I suspect that the whole mechanical side will forever be necessary.
"Saints be praised!" cried Chief O'Hara and BSME erco.
What about the other way around? Robot's without micro-controllers?
Robots with just neural net chips, or robots with quantum computers, or robots with some genetically hacked up mouse brains? Given sufficient nano-technology we could probably build a robot with purely mechanical computing elements. We already have examples of robots with nothing but analog circuitry driving their behavior.
Ramble, speculate, ramble...
Of course we already have "robots" that are totally devoid of any mechanical parts. They operate in the virtual worlds. Think google search bot.
And I believe there were steam driven looms that read paper tape to produce tweeds and other patterned weaves. Watch out for the flying shuttlecock.
Certainly "programmable" machines have been around for ages. Those looms your refer to were programmable by punched cards. Google "Jacquard loom". From that beginning we get those music boxes and piano players and indeed all the early business machines of IBM. All using punched cards or tapes.
There were many "automata" built in Victorian times for the amusement of the rich that were driven by such programming.
However, those devices were not computers as we understand them today. They lacked the essential ingredient of decision making. They could not change the outcome of their program by testing the state of, well, whatever. They could only blindly follow whatever pattern was on the cards or the tape. They were not "Turing complete".
It is arguable if a machine built out of such dumb sequencer is a "robot" in the sense we understand today.
I suppose I just want to go back to having restaurants with a tablecloth, flowers on the table, and a waitress/waiter. And I like the waitress/waiter to help me make my decision about what to eat.
I can't seem to see how greater efficiency and more economies of scale are going to solve Malthusian type problems.
Do we really want programmable robots making so many decisions, or don't we just want them to handle the drudgery and unhealthy work? From what I see, most industrial robots are painting vehicles or welding something.
I fear the ones that are best at making decisions are all slot machines in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, the bicycle never seems to go out of style. I'd rather have a maid than a Roomba.
He had built a robot lion too:
And maybe he even invented the driverless car: http://www.leonardodavincisinventions.com/mechanical-inventions/leonardo-da-vincis-car/
...ok... not a modern self driving car but a programmable machine...