The hexapod robot CNC router is a great combination of computer numerical control device and a six-legged robot. Created as a DIY prototype by Matt Denton, it can crawl onto a suitable medium and begin cutting a three-dimensional object.
Originally designed with a pen attachment for drawing, Denton substituted a cutting tool able to mill 3D surfaces in polystyrene. Each foot is ball joint-mounted to ease terrain adaptation, which means that it could conceivably do more than bas-relief carvings.
Take a look at this hexapod robot cnc router video.
(Hexapod CNC robot router)
Frankly, this robot looks a little bit like Ray Bradbury's Mechanical Hound got tired of chasing rats in the firehouse, and started a new hobby.
A better reference might be the Biltong life forms from Philip K. Dick's Pay for the Printer. For more than a century, they had kept a war-ravaged humanity supplied with consumer goods. Show them an original object, even something as complex as a car, and they would print out a new one. But now, they were wearing out.
Fergesson slid in behind the wheel and harshly slammed the door. The door didn't close properly. The metal was sprung - or perhaps it was misshapen. His hackles rose. Here, too, was an imperfect print - a trifle, a microscopic element botched in the printing. Even his sleek, luxurious Buick was puddinged...
(Read more about Dick's Biltong life forms)
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'