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"The writing is clicking away in my head and piling up, and unless I get it on paper somehow it's going to create uncomfortable pressure in my skull."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Sensor Arm | ||
| An extendable multipurpose sensor cluster. |
Very handy for short, barrel-shaped robots who lack opposable thumbs.
| ...Artoo finished removing a socket cover and hurriedly shoved his sensor arm into the opening. Lights commenced a wild flashing on his face and smoke started issuing from several seams in the small 'droid before a frantic Threepio could pull the arm free. Artoo emitted a few wilted beeps, successfully giving the impression of a human who had expected a glass of mild wine and instead unwittingly downed several gulps of something 180 proof. "Well, next time watch where you stick your sensors," Threepio chastised his companion. "You could have fried your insides... That's a power outlet, stupid, not an information terminal." Together they hunted for the proper outlet. |
| Technovelgy from Star Wars,
by George Lucas. Published by Del Rey in 1976 Additional resources -
|
The new Beagle 2, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express mission probe, makes use of a similar design, using a single extendable arm with a cluster of sensors:
The arm was originally going to move instruments and tools to-and-from the lander and the surface but after strengthening it, the equipment became an integral part of the arm and the need to make a connection every time something was picked up or put back was avoided.
The robotic arm holds all of Beagle 2's scientific instruments in a cluster at the end (Beagle 2's PAW). The arm supports the panoramic cameras and also deploys the mole.
(from space-technology.com)
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| Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots |
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'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
