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RB3D Hercule robotic exosceleton
Posted on February 21st, 2012 No commentsHercule is the name of this robotic exoskeleton developed by RB3D, a French engineering company, under the steering and funding of DGA, the French ministry of defense. Hercule doesn’t need any special training or knowledge skills, the person that wears it just performs his or her usual tasks and the exoskeleton provides the additional support and strength. It is electrically powered (unlike some other similar concepts that used 2 stroke internal combustion engines) and its battery life is about 20km at a moving speed of km/h (a regular walking pace) with the capacity of carrying 100kg. It can be used by the military (silent operation will be quite important) but civilian applications are equally important. Fire fighting, construction, logistics and even medical applications are possible. You can find more on this pdf brochure (2nd page in English) and in this article (in French). (via Innorobo)
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A Unique Pop-up Origami Fabrication of Micro Robots
Posted on February 17th, 2012 No commentsHarvard’s Microrobotics Lab has created a new Pop-up Origami style of fabrication for their winged microbots. A carrier is first made out of several layers of carbon fiber, brass, and thin flexible plastic. Then, using fabrication techniques such as laser etching, a design forms and then it is popped into place in sort of a pop-up book and Origami fashion. The robot is then tack soldered to lock the design into place and then laser cut and removed from the carrier material. The Mobee or Monolithic Bee is a very tiny robot at about the size of a Quarter. The video shows this unique assembly process and the finalized Mobee’s wings being tested at 1Hz and 30Hz. A must-see very impressive manufacture of winged microbots!
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Ryan Calo of Stanford Law School on personal robotics
Posted on February 16th, 2012 No comments -
New Products – Feb. 14
Posted on February 15th, 2012 No commentsOh how we love the smell of new products in the morning. Un-boxing all of these products makes it seem like Christmas morning all over again.
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Robots Podcast #97: Carlo Ratti
Posted on February 11th, 2012 No comments
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Pet Companion Robot using RDS
Posted on February 10th, 2012 No commentsBuilding a Pet Companion
When my wife and I both worked fulltime, we had to leave our dog Darwin home alone for 7-8 hours every day, so I decided to build a pet companion to keep him company. Primarily, I wanted to build something that would entertain Darwin, but I also thought it would be fun to create something that would allow me to check on him from work.
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EcoBot-III Runs On Human Excrement!
Posted on February 8th, 2012 No commentsI imagine a brilliant scientist somewhere was thinking of what he could do one day and came up with: I think I’ll make a robot that runs on human excrement, then craps into a litter box. And there you have it, the EcoBot-III. Thanks to funding from Bill and Melinda Gates, you know of Microsoft, researchers at Bristol Robotics Laboratory gave EcoBot-III sensors to move itself towards food, water or light which it consumes and then poops out the waste. Like don’t stand in the light, swim or smell tasty. Previous versions ran on other bio material like dead flies or sugar which were processed through the MFC or Microbial Fuel Cell which uses e-coli bacteria to turn the bio matter into electricity. The software and sensors monitor the digestive system and can wirelessly report on its surroundings.
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DARPA LS3, robotic "pack mule"
Posted on February 7th, 2012 No commentsThe famous ‘Big Dog’, a quadruped robot with a characteristic life-like appearance evolved into the new Legged Squad Support System (LS3), which recently underwent its first outdoor test. The new LS3 like its predecessor is a highly mobile, semi-autonomous legged robot. It use vision sensors (DARPA calls them ‘eyes’) to follow a person and also to map its path while avoiding or navigating over obstacles like rocks, trees etc. Over the next 18 months it will be tested thoroughly in order to be able to operate along a squad of Marines or soldiers. LS3 should carry 400lbs of cargo on a 20 mile trek in 24h without refuel. It could follow a specific person, track people, objects and the terrain in front of it while creating its own course. Along with its vision sensors, “hearing” technology will be added enabling soldiers to address it and command it with simple orders like “stop”, “sit” etc. The end result will be similar to a clever robot mule that will follow and obey to simple commands. You can find more info in DARPA’s press release and at the website of Boston Dynamics.
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Swarming Nano Quadrotors from GRASP Lab
Posted on February 2nd, 2012 No commentsUsing hardware developed by KMel Robotics, Alex Kushleyev and Daniel Mellinger, of UPenn’s GRASP Lab, working under the direction of Professor Vijay Kumar, and with assistance from Associate Professor Daniel Lee, have demonstrated coordinated flight of as many as twenty nano quadrotors.
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David Anderson on Subsumption-based Robots
Posted on February 1st, 2012 No commentsDavid Anderson, a long time member of the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, did an interesting presentation recently in which he distills down what he’s learned about building subsumption based mobile robots over the years. The video is a bit long but well-worth your time if you’re interested in intelligent robots. David provides some additional notes that link to video of specific examples. And don’t forget to check out David’s “my robots” webpage for more photos and details on his robots.
Technology and Machines
From heavy industry machniery to small tech gadgets….
