Questions tagged [robots]
For questions about machines (esp. programmable machines) capable of carrying out complex tasks.
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How much energy I would require to make a piston to move as fast as human muscle?
Context:
Robots and exoskeletons in this fictional scenario are having a "boom" because of some random super battery that can store a lot of energy, but it can only release it in really ...
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Do androids left on their own have any hope of replicating?
The scenario goes something like this: In the not so far future a fully automated exploration vessel crashes on an uninhabited planet not unlike earth. Unlike earth however, this particular planet is ...
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Advantages of reverse jointed legs in bipedal mechs?
I've been thinking of creating a setting similar to that of BattleTech, but set some time around when the industrial revolution is in full swing. This setting would also include bipedal mechs of ...
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Would the ability to eat and digest food help to fuel the stigma against sentient androids? [closed]
If androids were able to eat they would beat humans in one more jealous way because along with immortality and a tougher and stronger but at the same time having a soft body they could also eat as ...
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What is the ideal 'mouth' shape for rock eating robots?
The question is literally the tittle above. You're wasting your time reading this.
For context: The planet Abios is inhabited by a race of sentient robots. They're mechanical. They need infrastructure ...
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A better way to do a planetary invasion?
Planetary invasions are usually depicted using drop-ships which come straight down from the sky. Pretty much armoured Apollo Era capsules. These can be bigger, for example Warhammer40k has company ...
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What kind of horseshoes work best on a molten lead track?
There is a horse race happening in Hell. Hell is very rocky and prone to earthquakes, so the best place for the racetrack is on a river of molten lead. This makes for a flat course with obvious ...
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Alien war machines to non-lethally neutralize and disarm human combatants
In Designing a railgun to disable man-portable firearms, I asked about the specifics of the way that I had imagined for alien war-bots to disarm humans... but I was convinced by the accepted answer ...
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At what point could nanobots replace hospitals and medical services?
In my opinion, nanorobotics is the most interesting part of nanotechnology, and medicine and healthcare would be two of the areas that could benefit the most from nanobots.
Since nanobots could ...
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Why did this AI decide to create new robots instead of using human projects?
Setting
In the 2020s an AI took over all of the world and killed most of the population. Only a few groups of people have survived and now they live hiding in woods and rural places
About the AI
This ...
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Jumping Spherical Robots
I have a robot. It's a perfectly spherical bot, sort of like the bottom of BB-8. It's around a foot and a half tall and weighs about 15 pounds. I need it to be able to jump on command, no matter which ...
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How would a futuristic robot soldier look like? [closed]
I feel that whenever I search for something like “futuristic robot soldier”, the results are always similar and they look like designs and concepts made by ARTISTS, not ENGINEERS. As far as I know, ...
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What would a sentient AI do to safeguard its existence? [closed]
I'm looking to devise a good "human vs. AI" conflict that is NOT the usual "Skynet" approach (kill humanity) in a setting hundreds of years in the future, where humans have ...
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How easy would it be for an android to get away with homicide compared with a human being? [closed]
I know that in many sci-fi stuff Asimov's three laws of robotics are taken into account, but I personally do not like them. One of these laws says that a robot should be programmed to never hurt a ...
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How to write the initial robot apocalypse [closed]
I am currently planning a dark-humor story about the robot apocalypse (Mostly inspired by Robopocalypse and other robot uprising works, of course), and for a while, I’ve been struggling with just how ...
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Would android women be a better companionship and better sex partners for men than "real" women? [closed]
If robotics become advanced enough for the creation of humanlike androids( mentally and physically indistinguishable from flesh and blood humans) become possible in an affordable way for the average ...
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A Bioengineered Organism With AI
Would it be theoretically possible to produce bioengineered creatures with a mind that’s fused with AI? I’m developing a bioengineered race of creatures in my plot, and I’m trying to figure out how ...
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Roombas scurry in my robot city, what kind of filth would humans be?
Roombas scurry everywhere in my robot city, cleaning every surface diligently using power provided by those very surfaces using induction. They aren't limited to floors. Their design, mimicking ...
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An assassin robot that can only be avoided by listening to the sounds of its cooling unit burning things
Long story short, I have an assassin robot that needs a backpack refrigerator unit to regulate its internal temperature, as well as the temperature of all the various systems attached to it - whatever ...
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Why can humanoid robots designed solely for social purposes lift a 30 ton fire truck?
Set in the near future after there is a breakthrough in A.I. research, these robots are able to engage in a conversation with us and even provide consultation in many different areas ranging from ...
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Robot Creation and Copyrights
Let's say that in the year 2200 you can design and create your own android much like those ones of the game Detroit Become Human but instead of going to a store you customize and buy them using ...
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How to power and animate origami soldiers?
Set in near future, a sheet of metal can fold itself into a soldier with the height of a full grown men and can pick up ranged weapon. This is inspired by the folding of solar sail technology of ...
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Could a super-advanced but sociopathic alien civilization "blind-hack" Earth, even if it had never even heard of humans?
Imagine super-advanced aliens who know nothing of humans because their only view of Earth is from light that left Earth billions of years ago.. perhaps even from light that left before Earth was ...
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Durability of analog vs. electronic robots?
The setting is just like earth.
If we could build a fully functioning humanoid robot out of either a fictional analog material, or an electronic/digital processor and material, which would be more ...
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What would be the largest animal that could exist within a grassland ecosystem dominated by machines?
For the story that I am writing currently, it is set on a colonized planet thousands of years after machines wiped out most of the human colony that were established there, and would go on to form an ...
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metal/alloy based lifeforms? how would they function?
I've been working on an alien race for a while, and the look of them have changed a lot In the design process, but right now, I've stuck with metallic lifeforms..
essentially living machines, made ...
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How do I justify the existence of a gynoid army?
A gynoid is just the term used to refer to female androids or “fembots”. Gynoids are typically female-styled robots and are usually more human-like compared to regular androids, with the accompanying ...
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What good reason for a full metal humanoid robot with powerful hydraulic legs need to sit on chair?
Set in near future, the human and robot coexist together amicably and conflict is rare.
They are designed to resemble us as close as possible for our sake, so we feel at ease and less paranoid by ...
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Figuring-out which types of ground can support Bipedal Mechs of approx. the Mass of The Iron Giant
(Edited:)
I've been trying to figure-out which types of ground would allow mechs that have at least roughly the same mass as that of The Iron Giant to stand, walk, and run around on without the mechs ...
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Is there a reason why giant mechs have optics the size of a person instead of 'normal' sized ones?
It is said that eyes are the windows into the soul. In this case more like big openings to shoot into the head.
Giant mecha robots mimic the human form very closely despite their gigantism. In media ...
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Monetary system(or the abscense of it) in an economy where AI and robots have eliminated most jobs [closed]
Where the mejority economic socaity robot have the cloused and personal car 30 ton e.g. tracking
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What countermeasures can robots develop against nanites?
In sci fi TV tropes nanites or nanoscopic are autonomous molecules that can shut down robots by injecting them into their positronic brains, where they house all the important functions that dictates ...
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The advantages and the drawbacks of being an android in comparison to being a human [closed]
Judging from many science fiction stuff I played and watched I think that being a robot has many advantages like being ageless and immortal (I mean not aging visually and having an unlimited lifespan ...
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How should a robot distinguish between scrap metal and other robots?
What system do they use to distinguish robots from inanimate parts?
I previously asked how a robot would know what metals to build itself with in this question. That made me think about an other ...
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What would be the best design for a ship maintenance bot?
Yeah, I know I asked a question about a medbot just the other day but my book has multiple AI "characters" [dunno if they count as characters] and one is a maintenance bot [at least it used ...
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What’s the best design for a mobile medical robot?
So I’m tryna think of the most practical shape/design for a mobile medical robot. In my world [a high-tech space-faring society] they are used since a machine can withstand a lot more environments ...
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How would a digestive system for humanoid robots and androids work?
I know that many sentient robots in sci fi stuff eat food even if it is just for pleasure, energy or make them appear more like real humans and animals.
Well I was thinking how would such digestive ...
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Societal impact of steampunk robots on the Victorian era [closed]
I’m doing some cursory research into the Industrial Revolution as a whole for a steampunk/Victorian fantasy story and one detail of my setting that’s setting off alarm bells in my head is the use of ...
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How does a robot keep its own joints clean?
Robots in fiction, autonomous or self-aware, need ways to operate in mundane conditions otherwise they will eventually (without upkeep) fall to pieces. This includes events where one gets splashed ...
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How does a robot distinguish different metals and materials for self repair?
This plot point has been bothering me for ages: how do robots distinguish between metals? Many robots in fiction just pick up parts of machinery for self-repair or to make more robots. They don't seem ...
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What are the pros and cons of a spy humanoid robot of these heights? which height will have the most advantages?
In my story, they have humanoid robots (humanoid for a reason in the story, but no need to write it here) living with humans, so one of the humanoid robots are designed for spying/information ...
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How could a robot protect itself from solar flares?
How could a robot protect itself from solar flares? Especially that there is no close planet with a magnetic field.
They are humans in a robot's body (cyborgs?) that choose to work in mining after ...
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How would a robot make noise and speak without built in speakers?
A common trope with technologically advanced races is the lack of a need for speech. Machine races that self optimise usually forgo spoken languages all together, instead opting for completely ...
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How could simple but cheap robots be used in combat?
How could simple but cheap robots be used in combat? These robots are capable of more than what we can do today but are still very simple compared to a lot of sci-fi. They can move across rough ...
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Writing a timeline for the robot apocalypse
Can anyone help with a robot apocalypse story?
Wall of text incoming…
I am planning to write a dark, slightly comical novel that chronicles the events of a robot apocalypse (mostly from the ...
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What is the maximum power level for a car mounted RF jammer that can keep the robots at a distance, without cooking yourself?
Assuming present day earth.
Imagine someone with access to an exa-scale super computer creates an AI. That AI then becomes sentient and tries to take over the earth.
An exa-scale supercomputer ...
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Why would humans build / send sample humanoid robots on an alien planet before humans arriving themselves?
Humans can send rovers and machines on other planets to navigate or to establish bases before human occupation begins. These rovers and machines are non-humanoid and suited to their mission roles. ...
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Could these organic golems exist?
The organic golem is an artificial bionic humanoid. It is made up mostly of organic materials, like flesh and bone
Its limbs have tendons, ligaments, and bones like that of a human, but without ...
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How much precious metals and rare earth elements would be in a giant robot? [closed]
I was looking up the amount of precious metals like gold and silver and rare earth elements in a cell phone and was surprised to find out that an average iPhone contains 0.034 g of gold and 0.34 g of ...
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Anyone know some Artificial muscles?
For this question, I want to have robots/androids with artificial muscles for motion. I know that there is a kind of silicon-ethanol muscle that works by thermal energy (the electricity boils the ...
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