Dropping Science: New Tech For A New Year : RoboClam

By Kate Gammon , published on December 30, 2008 at 2:30 PM
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It’s not exactly consumer technology, but a robotic clam was invented recently–and any robotic shellfish deserve a little bit of attention. A group of engineers at MIT created the lightweight clam-bot to study how the razor clam burrows so quickly into the sand and also to come up with a better way for boats to drop anchor on sandy shores. Razor clams are the Ferraris of digging mollusks, according to the team, because they can bury themselves quickly (about a centimeter per second) and go deep (up to 70 centimeters). The sneaky mollusks propel themselves through wet sand using a muscular foot, and they use the lack of drag in wet sand to push themselves fast. The team replicated these habits with a robotic clam, which they say could be useful as tethers for small robotic submarines or when buried in the sand to detonate buried underwater mines.
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Comments
DGriffin 12/31/2008 8:59 AM
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What an idiotic idea!!! What if an other person in the car wants to use their cell phone???? What if there is an emergency!?!?!?!

zodiacfml 12/31/2008 10:40 AM
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i agree, no one will buy that car. hehe

Anonymous 12/31/2008 2:28 PM
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You can't be serious? If you can't tell a recorded disc from an original one with your bare eyes you need to check your glasses.

Anonymous 12/31/2008 2:39 PM
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Electronic gyros are nothing new, they've been around in r/c helis for several years. And they're not very expensive. Cheapest goes for 20 bucks.

Anonymous 12/31/2008 4:08 PM
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Umm.. the difference between a pressed(original) cd and a copy(burned) is that a pressed cd's data (0 and 1) are represented by physical pits and peaks whereas a burned cd's information is represented by burned (reflective and not reflective) marks on a flat plain. Make a system to differentiate peaks (which are reflective, but does not reflect into the target sensor) from non-reflective burn marks. Then you can tell which is a copy, and which is an original.

Balshoy 01/03/2009 1:15 AM
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Great another way to entice road rage... turn the mobile off while blocked in traffic.

Anonymous 01/06/2009 8:41 AM
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Robotic Clams...? Yes, finally! what we've all been waiting for!

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