A bush robot is a hypothetical machine whose body branches in a

fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illu ...

way into trillions of nanoscale fingers, to achieve very high dexterity and reconfigurability. The concept was described by

Hans Moravec Hans Peter Moravec (born November 30, 1948, Kautzen, Austria) is an adjunct faculty member at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. He is known for his work on robotics, artificial intelligence, and writings on ...

in a final report for NASA in 1999, who projected that development of the necessary technology will take half a century. Bush robots are also referenced as very recent technology in the Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase roleplaying games. They are also featured in some novels, such as '' Rocheworld'' by physicist Robert L. Forward, ''

Iron Sunrise ''Iron Sunrise'' is a 2004 hard science fiction novel by British writer Charles Stross, which follows the events in ''Singularity Sky''. The book was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 2005. ''Singularity Sky'' depicts a future whe ...

'' and '' Singularity Sky'' by Charles Stross, ''Matter'' by Iain M. Banks, ''

The Turing Option ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

'' by Harry Harrison and artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky, '' The Return of Bruce Wayne'' #6 by Grant Morrison and Lee Garbett, ''The Big Chill'' by Alan Moore and Carlos D'Anda (as the last form of life in the universe) and ''

The Adventures of Lando Calrissian Landonis Balthazar "Lando" Calrissian III is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) as an old friend of Han Solo and the administrator of the floating Cloud City on the gas p ...

'' by

L. Neil Smith Lester Neil Smith III (May 12, 1946 – August 27, 2021), better known as L. Neil Smith, was an American libertarian science fiction author and political activist. His works include the trilogy of Lando Calrissian novels, all published in 1983: ...

. Bush robots also play an important role in Ken Macleod's ''The Cassini Division'', part of his science-fiction series ''The Fall Revolution''. The utility robots in the movie Interstellar (film) were fractal designs similar to a Moravec bush, but with only five levels of bifurcation.

References

- {{robo-stub

See also

Further reading

References