News Damage-sensing and self-healing artificial muscles heralded as huge step forward in robotics

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We can rebuild him, we have the technology... 🤖

Joking aside, I am surprised the potential use in providing artificial musculature for prosthetics was not suggested.
 
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Yes, fear the terminator that needs an external water pump/power source. They talked about harvesters, so these would be the soft appendages for grabbing fruit and stuff.

Nuclear powered terminator never did sit right with me. In the first movie, if I recall, he was supposed to always be sweaty because the organic body was dealing with the excess heat of the system. I think they dropped that for the rest of the series, but it makes a lot of sense. Can't be more powerful than a human and stay cool.

A synth or replicant is a more feasible candidate idea for a terminator type robot. Hard to beat actual muscle in terms of strength/volume/energy requirements. Just need a programmable brain.
 
bit_user said:
Why? We have nuclear-powered space probes. It's not like they have water-cooled reactors on them.
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RTG is pretty minimal power output. And space probes are surprisingly larger then you would think. The nuclear powered rovers were the size of large SUVs.

That particular battery is also an RTG, and 100 microwatts is not enough to power anything mobile on the scale of person. It is interesting because of its lifespan, not power output.
 
Eximo said:
RTG is pretty minimal power output. And space probes are surprisingly larger then you would think. The nuclear powered rovers were the size of large SUVs.
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Because they have lots of science instruments and equipment like drills. The rovers' reactors are not big - they weigh just 99 pounds.

Also, these are real-world systems which are built conservatively so they can withstand the rigors of liftoff, landing, and will continue to operate reliably, for years. If you really had to, and didn't care that much about the safety of others around it, it's plausible enough to me that you might be able design something even smaller and with significantly greater power density.

Eximo said:
That particular battery is also an RTG, and 100 microwatts is not enough to power anything mobile on the scale of person. It is interesting because of its lifespan, not power output.
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It proves a principle. That's the only reason I cited it. If they used a stronger isotope, it would raise all kinds of safety concerns, not to mention issues of legality.

I wonder if @The Historical Fidelity can tell us what sort of energy output might be plausible, from a hypothetical nuclear battery consistent with Terminator technology.
 
Even at 99 pounds the rover's RTG was rated at 110W, that is just about the energy output of a human body. Not the output that is necessarily a problem it is the energy conversion to something suitable for later use. ATP in the body is shockingly good at that which allows an output greater than what you would expect.

So a potential android with an RTG would need some sort of storage system, either integrated into the 'muscles' or what have you. The endoskeleton alone is what doesn't work for me.

Regardless, all science fiction. Even the biochemical options that have been produced in labs are still lacking.
 
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