MIT Researchers Build A Robotic Snail

kiwimate writes "MIT researchers have built what might be the world's first robotic snail. It has two purposes: to understand how a snail moves, and to observer how liquids behave at a very small scale. Evidently, studying snail slime is a rather interesting pasttime. Lots of interesting details on sort of results might eventuate from this project."

Since it's a snail

[Lady Jazzica]

I bet it took them forever to build it...

How long until...

[Embedded Geek]

someone develops robotic salt?

Re:How long until...

[fehlschlag]

Just embed Windows CE into the poor sucker.

Re:How long until...

[Embedded Geek]

Hey! No fair reading my previous posts [slashdot.org]!

I mean, no one ever does usually!

*GRIN*

So slow...

[fehlschlag]

My 8-year old machine with cutting edge Windows OS (for the time) feels like a robotic snail.

MIT Researchers Build A Robotic Snail

[danratherfan]

It's about frigin' time.

Studying Snail Slime

[Stonan]

say that 5 times fast...

Liquids on a small scale?

[tsa]

It wasn't very clear in the article how this snail helps in the study of liquids on small scales. Can someone tell me more about this?

Re:Liquids on a small scale?

[Bowling Moses]

No, it's not exactly clear. Being a little cynical, it might be a researcher who wanted to do something weird (build a snailbot to see if it could be done) then PT Barnumed it to get some funding. Not meant to be insulting or to say this is how it really is, just that sometimes people do get funding this way. I know of a guy who gets craploads of money from the US Navy to develop underwater adhesives when all he really is interested in is how mussels stick to rocks so tightly. Does good work too, just k

Re:Liquids on a small scale?

[fugu]

my friend brian built the thing. he's reading this over my shoulder, so here's what he says:

"to be honest, they kinda blew it out of proportion. it doesn't have much to do with microfluidics. after building a water strider, i wanted to make a snail =b"

here's a link [mit.edu] to a couple of his other projects

Re:Liquids on a small scale?

[tsa]

Cool, I got an answer from the Creator Himself! Thanks for enlightening me!

Galloping Robosnails

[henrygb]

The Robosnail page [mit.edu] suggests they will next be looking at undulating movements. But galloping on one foot would be more interesting - it's how snails leave footprints.

Lab-on-a-chip connection?

[Laur]

From the article:

Although the project is not directly involved with medical science, Hosoi says there is hope it could lead to advances in the field, particularly in one aspect known as "lab on a chip." Just as silicon chips revolutionized computer electronics, the "lab on a chip" may spawn miniaturized machines or methods for providing medical treatment.

The robotic snail could play a key role in the drive toward smaller devices.

How are they making this connection? I fail to see how studying snail locomotion in any way affects lab-on-a-chip technology. Is snail locomoton being considered to mobilize lab-on-a-chips? How would you miniturize the mechanical components as well as prodce the slime? Other technologies seem much better suited if you need a mobile lab-on-a-chip. The article talks about the robotic snail, then discusses lab-on-a-chip, then switches back to slugs at the end. Overall a very poorly written article extremey lacking in any technical detail or cohesiveness. Not that I expect much from Yahoo News or anything.

Re:Lab-on-a-chip connection?

[Stuy 2 MIT]

It's a layman article, and isn't meant to be anything more than that. The connection really is poor, though. However, the study of "microfluids" really is important for specialized applications. A technical descriptions is available here:

http://www.devicelink.com/ivdt/archive/00/11/008 .h tml

I find the name "lab on a chip" misleading.

Interesting pasttime??

[Alsee]

Evidently, studying snail slime is a rather interesting pasttime.

Oh man, and I thought *I* was a nerd.

-

Cyborg snail says...

[know_gnus]

I'll be back... later... much later...

Sponsor's Influence

[SEWilco]

Of course, because the sponsor of their research is Nickelodeon, they are studying the characteristics of Lime, Cherry, and catapulted Slime.

verbiage

[Hubert_Shrump]

Lots of interesting details on sort of results might eventuate from this project.

Reread it.
Reread it..
Reread it...

My head explodes.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Punctuation, Spelling, and Grammar

[inode_buddha]

How about PastSlime?

my first thought...

[lylum]

yuck!!