TR Araña

The TR Araña (Spanish) meaning route tracing spider is a robot which is claimed to remotely analyse the composition of the ground. The device was created by Chilean inventor Manuel Salinas and was reported to be able to operate at depths of up to 50 metres. It is widely believed by the scientific community to be a fraud.

Principles

Answering a request by the Chilean Commission on Nuclear Energy Salinas wrote the following paragraph:

"[The principle behind the robot is] The non linear integration of the basic unit of life conformation the way it is known; therefore and merely as a functional and explanatory concept, I detail that our device is the integration of highly sophisticated electronic components which are able to decipher the unanimity equation in the chaos theory in the context of an integral raised to the power of the radical exponent, based in the conformation of the species, the way they are known after 20,000 years of assisted evolution."

— Manuel Salinas^[1]

At a presentation at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Valparaíso, Chile, on 12 October 2005 Salinas gave fantastic and seemingly irrational theories to explain how his machine worked. Before an audience of students, physicists and engineers he offered inconsistent explanations. But after some questions by students (questions anwered with a mix of science fiction and ignorance) professor and Doctorate in Physics Patricio Häberle spoke to the audience, thanking them for the patience and respect, but that this presentation will stop here, the University will not neither support nor give space for this, what the person (referring to Salinas) has talked about is not serious.^[2]

Criticism

Salinas says that the robot bounces a nuclear signal off materials to search for specific atomic compositions. Consensus exists among scientists that the technology Salinas says is used on the robot works — but only to depths of 30 cm and anything beyond that, such as the dozens of meters he claims to be able to probe, would be considered a technological advance.

Salinas has refused to patent the machine saying the technology is "an industrial secret."

External links

• "Mystery Robot Said to Solve Crimes, Find Mines in Chile". National Geographic News. May 23, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2013. 
• "TR Araña: La octava maravilla" (El Mercurio) (in Spanish)
• "600 barrels of loot found on Crusoe island". The Guardian. 26 September 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2013. 
• "Robot claims 'treasure island' booty". New Scientist. 26 September 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2013. 
• "Gold fever grips Chilean island". BBC News. 28 September 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2013. 
• Detailed Image
• Padre de TR Araña

References