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 robot is popularly known as Arturito, a Spanish word–play on R2-D2, and is also known as the Geo-Radar. 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—however there has not yet been a thorough independent investigation into either of the claims.

How it works

Salinas has said that his machine works by searching for materials based on their atomic composition. By programming it with 1,500 different atomic profiles the machine is able to send out a signal and receive it back once it finds the required elements. It uses an algorithm to analyze the elements that have been detected.

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 the following explanations:

"We isolate an atom, and put it inside a vacuum chamber, that means absolute zero atmosphere and gravity. Then we irradiate it and wait for it to decant. Then we spin that atom backwards over its own axis and that irradiates the profile that we store."

– Manuel Salinas

"[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 kown after 20,000 years of assisted evolution."

– Manuel Salinas

Discoveries

TR Araña was credited for having uncovered a weapons cache at Colonia Dignidad consiting of guns and rocket launchers buried 10 meters. It was also credited with locating the body of Luis Francisco Yuraszeck, a Chilean businessman who had been missing since March 2004, whose body was buried under four meters of cement.

International attention came in 2005 after Wagner Technologies, the funding company behind the development of Salinas's invention, claimed to have used it to find the largest recorded treasure trove: roughly 600 barrels of gold coins and jewels and would be worth about $10 billion. The treasure is reputed to be buried 15 meters (49 ft) beneath the surface of Robinson Crusoe Island in the Chilean archipelago of Juan Fernández. The treasure had been seized from the Incas by Spanish conquistadores and buried on the island in 1715 by Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverría. Because of its value it had attracted unsuccessful treasure hunters to the island for centuries, which was also where Alexander Selkirk was marooned — possibly inspiring the Robinson Crusoe novel.

When Chilean authorities claimed the treasure as government property a standoff developed. Wagner Technologies said it would only disclose the treasure's precise co–ordinates once the government renounced its claim and that it would donate 60 percent of it to Chilean charities. The government did not back down and the treasure remains in dispute and unexcavated.

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)
• "TR Araña: La octava maravilla" (El Mercurio) (in Spanish)
• The Guardian
• New Scientist
• BBC News
• Detailed Image