From Ian Noble
No address supplied
I read Mark Ward’s short article (Technology, 1 June, p 24), on Hans
Moravec’s work on a robot consisting of repeatedly branching arms, with
interest. For what it’s worth, the idea has been around for some time. Nor is
this the first time a NASA scientist has described it. In his science fiction
novel Flight of the Dragonfly, Robert Forward of NASA described
precisely such a mechanism, which he called the “Christmas bush”.
As to whether the original “bush robot” idea was Forward’s, one he borrowed
from Moravec, or simply a clever and potentially feasible concept that was being
tossed around at the time, I have no idea. It’s fascinating to see its
implementation become a possibility, however, and I await developments with
interest.
