Oddie loves a good robot.
Remember those dancing dogs made by that Boston Dynamics bunch? Remember that video of the robot that let the snake walk? Remember Bender from Futurama?
Oddie loves them all.
Well, there may be another one to add to the list, in Shepparton no less.
Total Tools has created its own robot, a mammoth nine-foot tall behemoth, called Boschtimus Prime.
When Oddie was at Total Tools it didn’t appear to move or dance, but who knows — perhaps it’s a Night at the Museum situation where the chainsaws and drills all come alive after dark?
Now wouldn’t that be a sequel?
Mulwala’s hypersonic missiles
The region is no stranger to military might, with Puckapunyal just an hour or so down the road, but the region’s other military depot has reminded everyone it’s still here.
Mulwala’s Thales munitions factory is at the centre of Australia’s push for hypersonic missiles.
Apparently these missiles are fast enough to enough to go from Melbourne to Sydney in seven minutes.
Oddie isn’t sure why Victorians would be firing missiles at NSW or vice-versa — that interstate rivalry seemed to go out of vogue once lockdowns lifted — but I guess once NRL and AFL finals begin everyone goes a bit loopy.
Anyway, Thales’ investment in new large-scale preparation and mixing equipment will apparently enable a 500 per cent increase in the size of rocket motors able to be manufactured at Mulwala in coming years.