Mechanical mole robot will dig to the rescue

[korencek]

concept is totally failed. before this kind of mechanism rescues anyone, all will die.

[Tydo90]

they should of tested it with a pile of bricks or really big ones that wouldn't of broken into small pieces cant really see it working in action just get rid of the small stuff at the side and not that well either...

[matt9741399]

The Japanese must be laughing at us. How many University students did it take to come up with this? 8-year olds would build something better out of Lego!

[hughlooks]

It's a mechanism that makes three moves. A very simple design, that can be one part of a much larger design. That's how they build and test robots ladies and gentlemen. One piece at a time. It alone can't do much, but I like the concept and the potential. It's a good design for what it can do, don't you's think?

[3Jumps]

Let's be fair- this'd have been useful at 9/11

But it's not 9/11

And tbh that's not gonna happen again.

So... this'd be more use in India, and other earthquake zones.

[dawnrun911]

What a useless piece of junk.

[SponggeBobb]

Tbh it's kinda cool, considering what the bigger version will be able to move. I doubt people would be able to move 2 tonne bricks themselves, so maybe this would actually lift it or something heroic like that.

[Markjacko123]

WTF

[NathanZackery]

It may have some potential I suppose. I presume it was mainly made for academic purposes.

[crof27]

load of crap , put some wheels and a bin on it and it might be able to rake your lawn of leaves but dig a hole? no chance.

[wrapupinarug]

o god if that were put into practice a survivor could climb out of the rubble themcelf by the time it takes!

[dotsfrazer]

ha ha thats the worst pease of shit iv ever seen what a waste of time i want my 1.53 back

[HardGameGuider]

not impressed

[Benji103]

i hate it :(

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[jimtachi]

Woo, now if I ever need a brick moved at 45 degrees, or a bunch of paper shifted to one side, I'll know who to call. xD

[roffltoast]

But why amke something taht small dig a hole? it will probably just get crushed by debre when it digs

[lantianta]

This is the most boring thing I have ever watched!Who cares about a digging robot!?

[Cowan6891]

You can't defend this thing. It totally sucks. Imagine a big pile of rubble, hows this thing going to make any impact? Get a JCB instead.

[OMGaDISTRACTION]

Now since when are people not capable of moving briks...

[mountfields]

like the mechanices of it !!

[animalnt]

useless...

[KlaxonCow]

I can't believe the degree of vicious nastiness and intolerance on this comment section.

This isn't the Transformers movie, you know. It's a demonstration of an nicely designed robot with a valuable life-saving purpose.

Some people worked hard on this, in order to help save lives (possibly even yours, one day), and you're all bitching about it - tearing that work and those people apart - because it's not doing something ludicrous like tap dancing for your banal entertainment.

[KlaxonCow]

I think the famous quotation applies: "Best to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're a fool, rather than open it and remove all doubt".

Seriously, this is shameful behaviour. Show some basic courtesy and respect. Not just for the inventors here but for yourselves, as you're showing yourselves up badly here.

I think this is an excellent little robot and I wish the inventors the best of luck with their project. :D

[KlaxonCow]

p.s. If you check the link to the NewScientist article, then you'll see that this is just a prototype of the mechanism.

So comments like "it's slow" or "all it does is push bricks aside" are totally missing the point that this isn't the finished product - which might well be faster and much larger able to push boulders aside - but just a simple demonstration of the "digging" mechanism in action.

[KlaxonCow]

p.s. If you read the New Scientist article linked to in the video description, then you'll see that this is only a simple demonstration of the "digging" mechanism.

So comments like "it's slow" or "all it does is push bricks aside" are completely missing the point. This is only a prototype to show how the "digging" works.

This is not the finished product, so comments like that are entirely missing the point.

[KlaxonCow]

Whoops, double post.

Well, there you have it. If you want a good demonstration of "slow" then YouTube's servers never fail to deliver. It took so long, I thought it hadn't registered and posted it up again. ;D

[rickshawriotgurl]

it's a bit slow there give it some redbull..jeez poor trapped people will run out of air before it gets them out : P

[casey1237]

this looks a bit shit.. I mean.. it can move a brick.. wow..

[prophetezekiel]

If you just put the robot in the bin and destroy all the paperwork, I'll forget this ever happened.

[tommybritain77]

wound it not be easy to move by hand, or r u jujst weak ?

[davemalk]

ROFL i couyld make that with mechano >_> its shit wow it can move a brick =D

[proudwesterner]

Well, here's the proof. University courses really are being dumbed down!! I made something twice as good out of Lego at the age of three... ;-)

[samgaskill]

lol thats something i wanna see haha

[muscleini]

great! we'll just wait for the first paper building to colapse. Dig quicker with my mouth!

[AdamssUK]

this thing sucks

[exponentialfilms]

dig a hole, and burry this thing for good.

[OghamTheBold]

Moles are more rampant - this one is a bit sleepy

[min47pgl]

this looks cool, but it doesnt move forward. also how could it lift a human out??

[Hamsterarcher]

A pointless invention. Its going no where fast and its not gunna be heavy enough to counter ballance the weight it has to move. cummon this is GSCE science laws here!

[raz909090]

Seriously? Is this what our robotics boffins are coming up with? What if it needs to dig in the dirt and there's no cling film available to protect the innards. Try a spade.

[Zoeslaterz]

it clearly doesn't do what it says on the label...the mole thing is bolted to that wood so it has more weight and stability than the brick...not really ethical tbf in the even of an earthquake

[doodlepood]

i think it is cool why everyone so mean :(

[RHCshirt124]

omg the person it was meant to rescue would have died from boredom before that ting reached them

[glennerd07]

i 3 year old can dig better than that at the beach

[Fizziwig2006]

But is it made of metal?

Bit pointless at the moment, but could be good if you increase it's speed, power and shovel area.

[djsmp]

totally useless idea , if that was supposed to dig me out when im about to die then i would rather be poked to death cos that is boring and usless as hell.

[nobogroll]

maybe thunderbirds could rescue me from this foam FAB

[disturbedrule]

that was boring yawn!

[nobogroll]

that last pic looks a machine for gathering snow what use is that i would rather lay in that stuff and let the wind blow it away its totaly useless or maybe strip the motors out and use it for my fine cuban cigars which were rolled on the thighs of a virgin

[nobogroll]

as if any one would be trapped in a cardboard box now come on with little bits

[nobogroll]

just took a dump man that thing is venomous do you think this could unblock my loo and is this waterproof

[lvetk]

I thought these things already excisted; excavating machines?

[Heresathought]

an excavating machine works slightly differently, it has a number of rings which have usually sharp points or ridges on them, and they rotate while the machine itself moves forward, however, they would need something slightly more delicate to rescuse people trapped under rubble, because excavating machines would just move it around a bit.

[RoboBaggins2000]

Yea it wasn't a very impressive demo!

[Splooshiba]

nice idea, but if i was buried under a collapsed building in an earthquake, id want something better than that before i felt safe

[Jpc118]

I can now surmise on behalf of New Scientist, that this machine is actually intended to burrow under the ground and rescue trapped moles, who cannot get out of their hole so to speak.

[thepsiborg]

you lot are very short sighted. this digging machine definitely looks like it has potential to me.

[billy210uk]

Looks like a big fat waste of money to me. If I was trapped under foam I think I'd nod off for a while and let the wind blow it away.

[lewigimole]

why the hell will somebody be buried in 3 metres of little bits of fam, they colud just get out of it

[Roasdkill]

i would like to see it move thousands of tons! alright it can move a few briks but what about a steel girder?

[Angrychineseblogger]

This would be the first generation. Give it a couple of more generations and a solid federal grant and it's great great grandchildren could well be digging out earthquake survivors in 2020.

[Roasdkill]

good point but they got a hell of a way to go

[123tommy456]

hmmmmm as if thats gna helpsomone 3 meters dwn

[adiwillow]

wow thats unbelievable.. if ever i'm stuck in a pile of approximately 12 leaves, or a bag of cotton wool.. i'm safe in the knowledge there are people out there willing to sacrifice their time and money in order to find way of getting me out..

hooray for the scientists !!

utter shite..

[bkermike]

nice sarcasm... etc by adiwillow..

lol

well, if u scale your model by a few 10.... and make it more energy efficient, and maybe on board seats and the rest... for pple to sit in. i'm sure it could be going places... perhaps nasa will hire you to dig on the moon to find alien life forms so we can have more cornflakes. cornflakes that... keep you awake through videos like this...

[centreofme]

might be better trying to swim, a load of rubbish anyway

[kirbyhater2]

its a metal turdburger

[ToffieKipperRecce]

A load of crap, the developers should concentrate on something that will actualy work.

[Hoodeddeathman]

Bit slow... and i dont think it would cope well wit say a pile of bricks

[kambingbetula]

should make 20 times faster...

[fokuspace]

its not THAT good, but idea is great.

[JohnDeBunkTest]

So far so good ... but it's not very far.

I hope the Mark II model is a more exciting machine.

[Dirtymurder]

Wow. Id rather a one legid dog trying to dig me out .

[Unfathomable42]

Hmm, I hope they improve that before it comes rescueing me...

[2slogan]

it kinda gets stuck when it tries to push the brick and a half, I guess its probs a mini of the real thing :S

[kartulikott]

not fantastic now but will be on future

[EmperorAtahualpa]

What a lame video. We want to see this thing in action, not on a table "digging" through some paper!

[PolliFaxToaster]

not impressive.

[thegreengenie]

it will just push itself over!. totaly crap. start again.

[martialdrake]

It is not useless.

It is at a pretty elemental stage of development now, but I can imagine a future version working well in the field.

A model air plane can not fly across the Atlantic, but put it in a wind tunnel and it can tell you a lot about the aerodynamics of a full size plane.

To put it in terms you might understand, "you need to walk before you can run".

[batukhan]

Oh cool.. It looked for cracks between rocks..

[RobertGittus]

I disagree completely anything that pushes the boundaries of science for the good of mankind isn't useless. Even if this model doesn't work then it can provide a sort of basis for further robots. So it isn't useless.

[Idler81643]

i really dont think this deserved to be on NewScientist.. the concept used is not "groundbreaking" at all..

[bitRAKE]

Seeing this operate does make me feel more secure.

[zomgomgomgz]

pretty fucking useless