British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers!

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 7:09PM CDT

Category: Media Vault
Posted by: Raymond T. Views: 20,738

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UK based The Daily Mail has reported a rather interesting article on their site. According to their article, Brittish scientists have taken the first step in producing real-life, shape changing robots with Artificial Intelligence.

The experiment will cost 4.6 million brittish pounds (aprox. 8 million US Dollars/ 5.5 million Euro). Each individual robot will be about the size of a sugar cube, but like the gestalt combiners in Transformers, they can link together to form bigger robots. The idea is that these Transformers could aid in medical applications, space exploration and even search and rescue missions. It is estimated that these robots could be put to use in as little as 5 years from now.

"The robots have functionality on their own, but they can also combine together or adapt and change as the situation requires. The individual robots won't change physically, but they will adapt and evolve their functionality. Once the robots come together they will be more versatile - like a colony of cells such as those found in a jelly fish or a sponge. The different robots will co-operate to create the larger organism. In a sponge even if there is damage to some parts, the overall organism still survives. In this way the artificial robotic organisms might in theory become self-configuring, self-healing and self-optimising from both hardware and software perspectives".

Credit(s): www.dailymail.co.uk

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Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654552)
Posted by Autobotic9 on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:15pm CDT

flippin' sweet.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654559)
Posted by Liege Evilmus on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:19pm CDT

I remember seeing a guy on Discovery once who could make nongestalt robots out of a broken walkman and a hanger who said his bots could have the same aplications, they worked great too!

So I'm saying lets find a clip of that guy, put a big screen on top of a bus playing it, then drive past some homeless with this article writen across our collective mooning asses!

Why help them when we can have sugar cubed sized working toys

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654560)
Posted by Omega Charge on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:22pm CDT

And then the AI goes a little too far, and before we know it, we have an outbreak of war, inside your body!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654561)
Posted by Nekoman on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:24pm CDT

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a really, really bad thing.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654566)
Posted by Raymond T. on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:27pm CDT

Omega Charge wrote:And then the AI goes a little too far, and before we know it, we have an outbreak of war, inside your body!

"And then, one fateful night,... Megatron was born!"

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654568)
Posted by Keeperofthespark on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:28pm CDT

Awesome! How cool is it to hear that what you love could and can happen in reality?

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654574)
Posted by Wheelimus Prime on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:34pm CDT

id buy em even though we may never get to

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654584)
Posted by capellamusic on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:41pm CDT

...and then they built Cybertron. Who said the Transformers were created by Quintesons? The Humans are creating them

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654598)
Posted by Ultra Magnus on March 12th, 2008 @ 7:59pm CDT

...

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654606)
Posted by Megatron Wolf on March 12th, 2008 @ 8:04pm CDT

One step closer to skynet.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654609)
Posted by Defcon! on March 12th, 2008 @ 8:08pm CDT

Megatron_Wolf wrote:One step closer to skynet.

Here! Here! We're all doomed!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654619)
Posted by ***Galvatron*** on March 12th, 2008 @ 8:17pm CDT

Megatron_Wolf wrote:One step closer to skynet.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :lol:

Skynet is what I call our MCP or master control program at work, it's called "Lawson"... yes two pop culture references in one post, Skynet from Terminator and MCP from Tron

How scary is it that there is an actual tab/page in Lawson that does say "MCP interface" ? :shock:

We freaking HATE Lawson!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654652)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 12th, 2008 @ 8:47pm CDT

Anything regarding AI scares me, Ive watched enough Sci Fi to know that right after that? complete mass human extinction, then we all have to live underground and fight the robots.

actaully now that i think about it, sounds pretty cool :lol:

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654660)
Posted by Chaoslock on March 12th, 2008 @ 8:56pm CDT

Why sugar-cube sized? It's just an instinct in me, but the smaller dangerous living things are, the more I hate them...

Build me a human-sized robot, that I can punch!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654695)
Posted by GreenLantern of Cybertron on March 12th, 2008 @ 9:35pm CDT

I have a scene in my head now of a flood of little scurrying sugarcube robots swarming across roads devouring everything (cars, houses, people) for more resources to make more sugarcube-bots.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654720)
Posted by UltraPrimal on March 12th, 2008 @ 10:02pm CDT

It's blood-thusty minicons come to life!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654738)
Posted by devil prime on March 12th, 2008 @ 10:19pm CDT

well we're one step closer to the robot apocalypse

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654796)
Posted by Decatron on March 13th, 2008 @ 12:24am CDT

There's not enough energy on earth for reallife Transformers and humans

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654811)
Posted by First-Aid on March 13th, 2008 @ 1:02am CDT

Why can't we have tiny robots doing USEFUL things...like making beer! And making beer! And making MORE beer! And making MUFFINS!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654829)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 13th, 2008 @ 2:40am CDT

devil prime wrote::shock: well we're one step closer to the robot apocalypse

exactly. but hey, at least the apocalypse has robots...

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654842)
Posted by Psychout on March 13th, 2008 @ 4:02am CDT

Woohoo!! Bring on the robot apocalypse!

I always knew if this world was going to be destroyed properly, it would be us Brits that would have to do it. :twisted:

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654880)
Posted by Autobot Jazz on March 13th, 2008 @ 5:51am CDT

Nekoman wrote:I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a really, really bad thing.

Depends, are they smart enough to program Autobots or stupid enough to try and make some Decepticons?

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654939)
Posted by Raymond T. on March 13th, 2008 @ 7:49am CDT

UltraPrimal wrote:It's blood-thusty minicons come to life!

I was thinking more along the lines of Scraplets.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654952)
Posted by Stormrider on March 13th, 2008 @ 8:15am CDT

Chaoslock wrote:It's just an instinct in me, but the smaller dangerous living things are, the more I hate them...

Build me a man-sized robot, that I can punch!

- This cracked me up.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654958)
Posted by Dead Metal on March 13th, 2008 @ 8:29am CDT

Old, so very old, they did this a loong time before, just a bit bigger than sugar cubes.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654963)
Posted by Zeds on March 13th, 2008 @ 8:40am CDT

First step to the end of the world or to the next evolution of the human race?

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (654989)
Posted by First Gen on March 13th, 2008 @ 9:12am CDT

AI, the whole concept of it, brings a shiver to me. The only way we'd be able to "control" such robots (I say that sort of sarcastically as you cant control anything with free will) is to make it weak with many ways to destroy it.

Skynet, The Matrix, or even worse AI the movie itself. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (655316)
Posted by Wheelimus Prime on March 13th, 2008 @ 3:24pm CDT

First Gen wrote:AI, the whole concept of it, brings a shiver to me. The only way we'd be able to
"control" such robots (I say that sort of sarcastically as you cant control anything with free will) is to make it weak with many ways to destroy it.

Skynet, The Matrix, or even worse AI the movie itself. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shrink that its making the page all wide like

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (655325)
Posted by ponycorn on March 13th, 2008 @ 3:39pm CDT

These remind me more of the Sentinels from the Halo universe, especially the way they were and acted in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (655753)
Posted by Dark Monkelus on March 14th, 2008 @ 3:24am CDT

don't miss the most important part of the story... 'British scientists'. We Brits are rubish at science, rmember the Beagle 2? rubbish!

Although we did invent Stephen Hawkin, but even he gets an American to speak for him.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (655757)
Posted by NiteStar on March 14th, 2008 @ 3:31am CDT

Then by year 2095 All the Machines Rebel and destroy humankind.
This is the Beginning of the End.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (655764)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 14th, 2008 @ 4:14am CDT

NiteStar wrote:Then by year 2095 All the Machines Rebel and destroy humankind.
This is the Beginning of the End.

you say that almost like its a bad thing :wink:

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (655875)
Posted by Gigastorm on March 14th, 2008 @ 9:31am CDT

or we may be lucky and be made into Headmasters, Powermasters, or Targetmasters partners. then we may be useful

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (656035)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 14th, 2008 @ 1:17pm CDT

Gigastorm wrote:or we may be lucky and be made into Headmasters, Powermasters, or Targetmasters partners. then we may be useful

hey at least we wont be minicons

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (656066)
Posted by ThunderThruster on March 14th, 2008 @ 1:45pm CDT

Outrider2000 wrote:
Gigastorm wrote:or we may be lucky and be made into Headmasters, Powermasters, or Targetmasters partners. then we may be useful

hey at least we wont be minicons

depends, would we be headmaster/powermaster us o japanese? in the japanese its the actual master partner that has the control!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (656193)
Posted by Dead Metal on March 14th, 2008 @ 4:34pm CDT

duds, what you are missing out is that the AI in these bots is just as intelligent as, lets say insects, maybe even dumber, the Ai in tease things just lets them react to there enviorment by adapting themselves to maneuver over obsticals or improve there design, they won't be able to take over the world.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (656442)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 14th, 2008 @ 10:37pm CDT

Dead Metal wrote:duds, what you are missing out is that the AI in these bots is just as intelligent as, lets say insects, maybe even dumber, the Ai in tease things just lets them react to there enviorment by adapting themselves to maneuver over obsticals or improve there design, they won't be able to take over the world.

yeah but see, thats how it starts then they will get smarter and smarter....

trust me, it will be just like in the moives :lol:

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (656578)
Posted by Dead Metal on March 15th, 2008 @ 5:46am CDT

Outrider2000 wrote:
Dead Metal wrote:duds, what you are missing out is that the AI in these bots is just as intelligent as, lets say insects, maybe even dumber, the Ai in tease things just lets them react to there enviorment by adapting themselves to maneuver over obsticals or improve there design, they won't be able to take over the world.

yeah but see, thats how it starts then they will get smarter and smarter....

trust me, it will be just like in the moives

The MIT has the smartest AI robot there is, and that needs 50 years till it's as smart as a 6 month old baby, so before robots take over the world, we'll be ruled by babys. and till that happens I'm dead anyway, so I don't care if they take over in like 100 years.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (656637)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 15th, 2008 @ 7:50am CDT

Dead Metal wrote:
Outrider2000 wrote:
Dead Metal wrote:duds, what you are missing out is that the AI in these bots is just as intelligent as, lets say insects, maybe even dumber, the Ai in tease things just lets them react to there enviorment by adapting themselves to maneuver over obsticals or improve there design, they won't be able to take over the world.

yeah but see, thats how it starts then they will get smarter and smarter....

trust me, it will be just like in the moives

The MIT has the smartest AI robot there is, and that needs 50 years till it's as smart as a 6 month old baby, so before robots take over the world, we'll be ruled by babys. and till that happens I'm dead anyway, so I don't care if they take over in like 100 years.

LOL I guess we wont have to worry about the robot apocalypse then

though to tell you the truth i was kinda looking fwd to fighting it out all John Conner style :lol:

(hey it looked cool in movies)

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (656732)
Posted by ThunderThruster on March 15th, 2008 @ 10:17am CDT

Outrider2000 wrote:though to tell you the truth i was kinda looking fwd to fighting it out all John Conner style (hey it looked cool in movies)

yeah, but i expext to be able to take out the T1 with a hammer!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (657044)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 15th, 2008 @ 8:30pm CDT

ThunderThruster wrote:
Outrider2000 wrote:though to tell you the truth i was kinda looking fwd to fighting it out all John Conner style (hey it looked cool in movies)

yeah, but i expext to be able to take out the T1 with a hammer!

I like the sound of that

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (657283)
Posted by ThunderThruster on March 16th, 2008 @ 8:35am CDT

Outrider2000 wrote:
ThunderThruster wrote:
Outrider2000 wrote:though to tell you the truth i was kinda looking fwd to fighting it out all John Conner style (hey it looked cool in movies)

yeah, but i expext to be able to take out the T1 with a hammer!

I like the sound of that

yeah but when they get to the T800(arnie) we're gonna be buggered!

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (657655)
Posted by T-Macksimus on March 16th, 2008 @ 10:59pm CDT

While everybody else has been thinking doom and gloom AI, Matrix,Terminator scenarios I'll continue to think happy, happy thoughts remembering how Kurt Russel ended "Escape From L.A."
There will always be those who step up to the plate to pull humanitys collective ass out of the fire when things go technologically, horribly wrong. I aim to live long enough to be one of those people. So bring on the advancements, let's see what the scientists can pull off. Hopefully we can have something benefit mankind for awhile before somone bastardizes the technology and commits mass genocide with it.

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (657774)
Posted by Outrider2000 on March 17th, 2008 @ 6:20am CDT

T-Macksimus wrote:While everybody else has been thinking doom and gloom AI, Matrix,Terminator scenarios I'll continue to think happy, happy thoughts remembering how Kurt Russel ended "Escape From L.A."
There will always be those who step up to the plate to pull humanitys collective ass out of the fire when things go technologically, horribly wrong. I aim to live long enough to be one of those people. So bring on the advancements, let's see what the scientists can pull off. Hopefully we can have something benefit mankind for awhile before somone bastardizes the technology and commits mass genocide with it.

you know i was so into thinkng about Skynet and T2 I didn't even think about Escape from LA...that would be cool also :grin:

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (664732)
Posted by Dead Metal on March 26th, 2008 @ 10:36am CDT

Necrobump in favor of the youtube vid!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SkvpEfAPXn4

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (665374)
Posted by Blackstreak on March 26th, 2008 @ 10:05pm CDT

I saw this on the internet some time ago and thought it pretty neat. I wonder what they would do with this technology :-?

Re: British Scientists Take First Steps Towards Real Life Transformers! (665424)
Posted by AncientSpark on March 26th, 2008 @ 11:15pm CDT

Nekoman wrote:I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a really, really bad thing.

Hmmm... first off you've got miniture robots living inside of you, fixing your ails as they occcur, and that in and of itself is good. Then you have to stop and realize. How do they upgrade their programs without commanding them to all exit your body first? So I am guessing they will be wifi and you just come to the technician's office and they send a signal to your body to reprogram the bots for special needs based on specific illnesses or injuries.
Well now we have a new breed of hackers suddenly who can detect people with the nanos in them and once they find them they send their own signals telling the bots to rearrange your internals and kill every person who dared to allow this tech inside of them.

that's not good. Still unsure?

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