The Vico Maintenance Department is investigating the use of slimy floating stuff (noticed yesterday floating in the vicinity of the North steps) to remove seaweed and graffiti by controlling a scrubbing robot. Southamton University have succeeded in getting slime-mould to control a robot, or, as an academic would put it:
"an experimental setup that interfaces an amoeboid plasmodium
of Physarum polycephalum with an omnidirectional hexapod robot to realise
an interaction loop between environment and plasticity in control. Through
this bio-electronic hybrid architecture the continuous negotiation process
between local intracellular reconfiguration on the micro-physical scale and
global behaviour of the cell in a macroscale environment"
Alternatively, Dr D could be used instead of the slime-mould.
Sunday, 15 April 2007
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1 comment:
We definitely need a detailed study now to find out which option would be more environmentally sound altogether: Slimeball Robot or Dr. D!
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