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When I was a young robotics engineer, I designed a house with a hidden ceiling that hid the mechanical parts for such a robot. There were 4'x4' panels with rele
by intrasight 9y ago
When I was a young robotics engineer, I designed a house with a hidden ceiling that hid the mechanical parts for such a robot. There were 4'x4' panels with releases and actuators to open up a hole for the arm to descend through. A 28'x28' space would only need 10 actuators (edge panels can't open). But alas 30 years later I've still not built it.
- duncanawoods 9y ago25 years ago, in a high school English exam, I wrote a short story about just such a design. As is the way of such stories, the arm throttled a small child after a miscommunication! I was a little bothered that I might have unconsciously cribbed it from Asimov that I read at that age. Mechanical ceiling arms seem likely to be terrifying even if they work.
- intrasight 9y agoDoesn't have to be terrifying. Make it soft and squishy and use artificial muscles not gears and motors. It doesn't have to be able to lift my piano.
- duncanawoods 9y agoI don't find ceiling tentacles any more reassuring!