Germans unveil robots 'controlled by chaos itself'

Remorseless German boffins announced this week that they have introduced robots which are under the control of chaos itself. A chaos-controlled robot. Credit: Max Planck Gesellschaft Quite literally no idea what it'll do next. Apparently this doesn't involve remote control by butterfly wing-flaps from the other side of the …

[John Smith 19]

Sort of like locking an oscilator to a low level signal

Only the signal is a bit more complicated than a simple sine or square wave.

Neat.

[rpjs]

I, for one...

...welcome our new Erisian robotic overlords.

Hail Eris!

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Thust those teutonic boffins to include umlauts in their names.

I mean, how can you be a proper kraut without some funky umlauts and preferably a "von" in you name?

Göttingen ;)

[some vaguely opinionated bloke]

I for one...

... welcome our new, small, chaotically driven robot overlords, which have so far been taught to run away from tigers and not get stuck in crevices.

S'cool. Very cool.

[Mine's a pint]

Digital rehash?

Sounds a bit like a Nervous Net

http://tnewton.solarbotics.net/robot2.html

[Duncanmhor]

Chaos?

Oil for the oil God!

/IGMC for sheer geekery

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abc123

gives a whole new meaning to "demons running"...

[Will Shaw]

ROTM, dude.

Chaos, my butt. It's clearly drilling through the wall with a fairly focussed and determined bearing about it. Presumable to get at the cowering fleshies within, before feeding them into some kind of centralised bio-reactor.

[Doogs]

Yeah

Where's Magnum PI when you need him?

[signpost]

Almost human ?

Clearly showing it's human qualities there, since the picture clearly shows it putting it's foot through the ceiling, just like I did last year.

Will their next demonstration involve it falling off a ladder ?

[Ben Raynes]

Is it just me...

... or do these things bear a striking resemblance to the Replicators from 'Stargate SG-1'?

[The First Dave]

Location

Please don't let any of these things over here - the amount of chaos in Westminster alone would see one of these run amok for ever...

[Jerome 0]

Choas?

Controlled by chaos? Looks more like an iPaq to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

gladiators

We need to arrange some EU gladatorial contests. Dr Von Strangelove and his chaos robots versus Peter Mandelson and his er..chaos robots would do nicely for starters.

[Anonymous Coward]

One question

Do these Robots control Skynet? If not, why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

What happens...

If the obstacle is has to overcome is you by being in its way, and you have given it a cutting tool?

Will it determine that rather than going round you it will go through you while doing chatoic movements? That I would pay to see.

[Robert Grant]

Local maxima a-gogo

How does it know when it's found the most efficient way to walk?

[Anonymous Coward]

'controlled by chaos itself'

How can he control a robot? He's just a weird head that sprouted out of Sarda's face!

[Circadian]

Anyone else think...

... the researchers got their idea watching men stagger out of pubs at closing time?

[Magani]

Cue Monty Python?

"...with only one CPG that generates entirely different gaits and which can switch between these gaits in a flexible manner...."

Sounds like they've automated John Cleese's Ministry of Silly Walks.