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View Full Version : Slime-Riding Robot

petek
24-09-2006, 10:15
Just wait until the GDC sees this: a slime-riding robot (http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn10147&feedId=online-news_rss20) [NewScientistTech (http://www.newscientisttech.com/home.ns)] that uses adherent polymer to gain traction to the intestinal wall.

Right now it's just a proof of principle, but according to the article "[its developer, Dimitra Dodou (Delft University of Technology)] plans to test a prototype snail-bot carrying a camera, a tool for taking biopsies and a communications link inside a length of pig gut."

I say: Chutes & Ladders in FRC 2008!

(I get a little envious to think that this is the kind of stuff some our biomedically-oriented students might be working with when they start their careers)
KarenH
24-09-2006, 20:02
Forget the games! I want one for my next colonoscopy!! On second thought, what if the gadget gets lost inside and can't find its way out?? :ahh:
Al Skierkiewicz
25-09-2006, 07:40
Pete,
I remember a big announcement several years ago that scientists were studying the snail mucous because it had some incredible properties. i.e. it became a near solid when pressure was exerted by the snail's underside for forward locomotion but it also was an incredible lubricant after the snail had passed. Scientists thought at that time, a duplicate might make a really low loss transmission/clutch. Haven't heard much about it since.
petek
25-09-2006, 12:30
Pete,
I remember a big announcement several years ago that scientists were studying the snail mucous because it had some incredible properties. i.e. it became a near solid when pressure was exerted by the snail's underside for forward locomotion but it also was an incredible lubricant after the snail had passed. Scientists thought at that time, a duplicate might make a really low loss transmission/clutch. Haven't heard much about it since.
Good call Al! For more than you probably want to know about the subject, here's a paper (http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/42/6/1164) that discusses invertebrate mucus properties. They speculate that these critters control their mucus' adhesive and locomotive properties by protein expression.