Highway robber

A highway robber is any mechanism that can retrieve a signal from a spaceship lane while allowing spaceships on nearby lanes (even those a single lane away) to pass by unaffected. In practice the spaceship is generally a glider. The spaceship is removed from the lane in question, an output signal is generated elsewhere, and the highway robber returns to its original state. A competent highway robber does not affect spaceships even on the lane adjacent to the affected spaceship stream, except perhaps during the highway robber's recovery period.

A stable highway robber with repeat time 878 was assembled by Chris Cain in 2016, with an update by Entity Valkyrie in January 2019 to simplify the extraction of the output signal. A simpler highway robber with improved clearance and repeat time 876 was constructed by Louis-François Handfield in May 2020, with subsequent improvements made by Goldtiger997. The next version made use of the Bandersnatch to reduce the repeat time to 863 ticks. On June 23, Goldtiger997 posted a larger staged recovery highway robber with a repeat time of 742 ticks.

x = 207, y = 247, rule = B3/S23 obo$b2o$bo9$13bo$14bo$12b3o153$134bo$133bobo$133bobo$127b2ob2obobob2o$ 126bobobobobobobo$122b2o2bo5bo3bo8bo$122bobob2o3b2o3b2o5b3o$124bo17bo$ 124b4o14b2o$122b2o3bo4bo$121bo2b3o4bobo$92b2o3b2o22b2obo6bobo$92b2o3b 2o25bo7bo$124b2o34b2o$161bo$85b2o74bob2o$86bo72bobobo$86bobo66b2o2b2o 2bo$87b2o66b2o6b3o$166bo19bo$165b2o20b2o$123bo62b2o$122bobo$122bobo$ 123bo$90b2o$91bo$88b3o$88bo35b2o$120bobo2bo$118b3ob3o18b2o$117bo3bo20b obo54bo$117b2o2bob2o17bo54bobo$122bobo16b2o55b2o2$103b2o92bo$103b2o91b obo$95b2o98bo2bo$96bo58b2o39b2o$93b3o59b2o$93bo67b2o$162bo$94bo64b3o$ 93bobo63bo$93bobo$91b3ob2o89b2o$90bo95b2o15b2o$91b3ob2o106bo$93bob2o 107b3o$196b2o8bo$103b2o91bo$103b2o7b2o83b3o$112bo86bo$110bobo$110b2o3$ 115bo$90b2o23b3o51bo$90b2o26bo50b3o$117b2o53bo$171b2o3$106bo$105bobo$ 105bobo$106bo20b2o$107b3o10b2o5bobo51b2o$109bo10b2o7bo44b2o5bobo$129b 2o43b2o7bo$183b2o$116bo$115bobob2o49bo$115bobobobo47bobob2o$112b2obobo bobo2bo44bobobobo$112bo2bo2b2ob4o41b2obobobobo2bo$114b2o4bo45bo2bo2b2o b4o$120bobo45b2o4bo$121b2o51bobo$175b2o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ AUTOSTART THUMBSIZE 2 HEIGHT 600 WIDTH 800 ZOOM 4 X 40 Y 75 LOOP 742 ]]

A stable highway robber with 742-tick repeat time, allowing gliders to pass by on the same lane 47+ ticks after the activating glider. There are three possible glider outputs, but two of them are awkwardly close to other glider lanes. (click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here

See also

• Tub-with-tail eater

External links

• Highway robber at the Life Lexicon