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as a layman when it comes to robots (or really anything, if I'm honest) this is amazing.
When you want to hear what it might sound like but instead they play loud music over the video. Quite frustrating. Is it going to become a ceiling roomba or not based on how loud it is?
> There are a couple of downsides too, though. The biggest one could be that 200 Hz is a frequency that’s well within human hearing, which probably explains that soundtrack in the video—the robot is, as the researchers put it, “inherently quite noisy.”
200Hz seems a low enough frequency (1.7m wavelength) that they could do active noise cancellation with a small onboard speaker designed to generate a similar sound 180 deg out of phase such that it cancels in far field. Would probably need some DSP to generate anti harmonics as well assuming there are some nonlinearities.
If the vibrations are what's holding it on then cancelling those vibrations might knock it off...
> Is it going to become a ceiling roomba

What would be the point of a ceiling roomba? Are ceilings ever that dirty to require regular vaccumming?

I've certainly seen ceilings, such as at restaurants, that are out of reach of cleaning so they are covered with visible nastiness. I also once lived in a rental with a really high ceiling that was impossible to clean the cob webs, which were quite visible. Having robots that can crawl up there and clean -- or for that matter, paint -- would be handy.
Oh wow - paint! As someone who’s renovating a house at this very moment, I would happily pay for that!
Yes. A rotating disk and paint. Sounds artsy.

However, that shows there is demand for paint on high ceilings. A robotic arm, with an AI that is able to paint the corners and circumvolutions with a brush, that is able to retouch if a spot was missed?

Maybe in the future, luxury will be in high ceilings that are clean and renovated. Imagine how dusty the paintings are in churches and palaces - imagine we could brush off the dust and restore their intensity every 6 months.

Cleaning showers, baths, etc.
My apartment is not conductive to robot vacuums, but would entertain the idea of employing a bunch of robot window cleaners. Seems like a very well defined problem at first glance.
My apartment's floor has a high ohm reading too. And the walls must be thermally-conductive too because the AC runs constantly. ;-)

A mop robot takes care of the entryway and kitchen. It really needs some exterior mop robots because they're constantly dirty.

Congratulations! You’re not a smoker!
Large glass facades need cleaning at least once a year. The problem is to reach the heights. Currently there are a few solutions to this problem: hydraulic lifting platforms, industrial climbers and climbing solutions where you don’t need to be a real industrial climber. Robots would probably be cheaper.
There already are also "ceiling roombas" holding up by sucking[0].

(I don't know whether they can actually do ceilings or only vertical surfaces for now, but it seems if you could build the latter product you would also be able to make the former)

[0] — https://youtu.be/jO-diCFjfms

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Well if it can paint my ceiling in an hour or two, I don't really mind how loud it is (up to a a point).

I have very high ceilings.

It might also be quite useful for examining the outside of high skyscrapers for maintenance, if you need to get a camera up there.

Painting a ceiling is more difficult for a climbing robot than cleaning the ceiling, since it's got to carry the weight of the paint up there.
I could have sworn I've seen something like this before on YouTube already. Someone demonstrated a similar effect, and attached different-sized weights to test the adhesion. For the life of me, I can't find it.
You're probably thinking of gecko style robots which use electrostatic chucks on the surface they are adhering to.

This is the same sort of application but a completely new method for the suction effect.

That’s alright, it just didn’t stick with you.
Weight, was that a pun?
I didn't downvote your parent in case they wrongly took it as a mark of disrespect.

I didn't downvote your comment in case you wrongly took it as a mark of respect.

I don't get this vibe, sorry
A bit obtuse. My apologies.

A BAD pun is really a good one. Look at the social reaction. This might not be universal, but it's at least common across different cultures.

A bad pun is just that.

I’m glad I interpreted your first comment correctly. ;)

The mark of a mediocre pun is apathy. The mark of a well executed pin is the resulting groan.

What did pins ever do to you? Leave them be. They're people too and are appealing to the ICC to be recognized as such.
Very few Americans have a sense of humor and even fewer generally "get" puns. Go to the UK, and it's a punny day everyday.
I distinctly remember it too. This wasn't a robot, but just a speaker system without propulsion. I think it was demonstrated on a plexiglass sheet, probably above and below it.

They demonstrated various frequencies and weights. Maybe various designs with multiple speakers too?

IIRC, the author mentioned they patented it, but couldn't go anywhere with it.

Unfortunately, I can't find it anymore. I'll keep looking a bit and edit or post below if I do.

Space Elevator here we come!

Edit: Y'all don't know about the Space Elevator ? There was a competition to figure out how to get a thing to climb a really long rope to space... This looks like it could do it

It needs a 'fluid' to work. I think there is not enough of a 'fluid' to work with above a few (dozen) miles, or so.
This “fluid” term always throws me off :) Then I’m reminded of Fluid Dynamics from my Vfx days. Playing around with 3d fire and smoke never gets old!
I have a pet-peeve about people using the word "fluid" as an adjective. When it is spoken though, at least it doesn't sound like "moist."
Isnt rope the real challenge (in term of physics) of the Space Elevator ?
Yeah, that's definitely the main issue. A winner of a competition used lasers to heat the solar cells on a robot causing it to climb a ribbon. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18122-space-elevator-...

But as you astutely mention, how do we construct such a ribbon? ... Great question.

Single-crystal graphene is the leading candidate material.

I guess we just need a continuous graphene-making builder robot.

If it were me, I would arrange a dozen or so ribbons in a circular configuration for redundancy with a platform climber made mostly from carbon fiber and covered in multilayer insulation.

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This reminds me of levitating fluids over air by vibration, which Steve Mould made a nice video about: The Levitating Liquid Pendlum - https://youtu.be/gMAKamGIiMc

The paper that is the source of the footage in the video: https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.04777

Thank you for this link. That was incredibly interesting. I won't spoil the twist at the end, suffice to say that I now am hoping for something like that in a scifi movie.
Supposing there was a large enough pool to do this effect with a person in it…would it give the perception of weightlessness?
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I would be curious to try this using the upside down buoyancy demonstrated at the end of the video. That'd be... Trippy? Terrifying? Amazing?
You also have suction with very hot disks with a hole in the centre.

Bernoulli effect in its different emanations.

A more practical use of is to just use compressed air to create vacuum like Bernoulli suckers do

It's convenient because this way air tools don't need separate vacuum hoses (which are way more expensive, and bulkier than air hoses.)

This is great! Do like how the Coke branding is blurred out...
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Advertising must be NSFW. ;-)

It's the perfect tool to ride across the ceiling, steal a coworker's lunch, their stapler, and/or shoot NERF minidarts at them.

can I please have a shelf dusting Roomba now?
How does it move? Is it able to modulate the vibrations in the intended direction of movement?
It has (tiny) motored wheels mounted at the tips of the chassis...
It's basically like a tank. 2 wheels. FF for forward, RR for reverse, FR for right, RF for left.
While I find this effect to be really surprising, it's also somehow intuitive to me. I think it reminds me of holding a piece of grass between my thumbs and blowing to make it vibrate. Different, sort of reversed physics, but somewhat related. What really surprises me about this effect is how much weight it can support.
HOLY SHIT!

Wait until these are integrated into wearbles - gloves, shoes, a back-pad etc..

Also - overhead delivery pathways. Can you get more load capacity with one large disc or many small discs?

If the bot can follow a magnetic tape along a path this could be a delivery mecanism in facilities of the future.

Whate would be interesting is if there were a low-voltage track that it ran a connection to for power - or an inverter coil on the top side of the delivery track to provide constant wireless power to the 'suctioned' devices crawling along its path.

This thing could revolutionize a lot of deliver mechanisms -

Put them along hospital corridors within a tube/enclosure such that delivery bots can peddle about the hospital unheeded and without impeding existing traffic....

I WANT one - how make?

Wearables? I don't want this crawling on me, thanks. haha.

Things crawling on the ceiling of occupied spaces.. what could go wrong?