Speaking of really expensive materials, I also like materials with extreme microporosity on a micron scale (the stuff Im talking about is http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/aerogel.html>
Its not _that_ expensive, considering its low weight. Could be possible to use in ants?
Hmm. I too had wondered about aerogel, the idea being to fill the inside of the robot with it completely (other than the amount required for ventilation) to prop up the armour.
Thing is, a) its very brittle (one hit and youd have something resembling glass powder in your motors), b) its strong for its weight, but then its weight is almost nothing, and c) I hadnt realised it was quite this expensive.
Mind you, one kilo would probably be too much with which to fill a robot.
IIRC NASA used it to trap comet dust. I strongly suspect the stuff has less esoteric uses, but Im not sure they intersect with combat robotics.
Okay, what use do we think Eds going to find for (scuse spelling) Buckminster-Fullerine?
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Fluppet
The brittleness might be a problem in ants, since it would be hard to shield; might work as sacrificial armour, perhaps.
Back to metals, Rhodium (not sure I trust my spelling at all today - is that right?) is very hard - white gold gets coated with the stuff. I believe its the hardest pure metal (so Im told), which probably makes it useful for plating things, but I dont know how it compares to strange alloys. Plus its a tad pricey.
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Fluppet
Rhodium is a platinum metal, hence the high price. Its not that hard though, just very strong (even stronger than 6AL-4V titanium).
Really? Strange. I was going off what I was told by a jeweller, who Im prepared to believe had a limited knowledge in structural metallurgy. I can see the point in coating something with a hard substance, but less with coating something in a strong substance. Mind you, compared with silver/gold alloy, I suppose its still quite hard.
Having said that, most of its worn off - the ring isnt the colour it used to be, and looks more like it has some gold in it.
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Fluppet
€œAn experiment by Eva Obersdrster at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas which introduced fullerenes into water at concentrations of 0.5 parts per million found that largemouth bass suffered a 17-fold increase in cellular damage in the brain tissue after 48 hours.€Â
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullereneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerenes
Ed is probably either going to poison fish or suffer enough brain damage to go lie in a large electricity substation during a rainstorm in order to test out C60s superconductivity properties
Actually, thats a thought. A YBCuO variant superconducting electromagnet might cope with the traditionally suggested business of picking up your opponents (with the traditional problem of by what?) Of course, not breaking the electromagnetic interference rule in the process might be a challenge.
Okay, what havent we covered yet. Gold. We need gold heat exchangers. Then Garys motor wouldnt overheat. :-) (If its good enough for McLaren...)
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Fluppet
Well, theres also depleted uranium and unniloctium, both very heavy metals for when you need some really dense ballast material.
Well, osmium is your friend, and a little less radioactive IIRC. (I have a vague recollection of the kids on Chocky playing with a ball of osmium which, frankly, theres no way they would have been able to lift - but at least theyd have been sterilised by the radioactivity, so given how annoying they were theres an upside.)
Not that Ive yet found many roboteers looking for ballast...
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Fluppet
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