Boston Dynamics Cheetah Robot Breaks Running Land Speed Record

Boston Dynamics unveiled its latest bio-inspired robots, the Cheetah, which has broken the legged-robot land speed record. The Cheetah is capable of galloping at 18 mph (30 kph)!

A more detailed article at ScaryBot.com shows a comparison with a real Cheetah running.

Posted under biomimetic, companies, locomotion, mobility, research, technology

Quadcopter Swarm Plays James Bond Theme

ScaryBot.com has an article showing a swarm of quadcopters (quadrotors) playing the James Bond Theme with real musical instruments. Here is a link:
Quadcopter Swarm Plays James Bond Theme at ScaryBot

and a video:

Posted under autonomous flight, fun, swarm robotics

Meet Nao from Aldebaran Robotics

Meet Nao from Aldebaran Robotics!

From the Aldebaran Robotics website:

NAO is a programmable, 57-cm tall humanoid robot with the following key components:

Body with 25 degrees of freedom (DOF) whose key elements are electric motors and actuators

Sensor network, including 2 cameras, 4 microphones, sonar rangefinder, 2 IR emitters and receivers, 1 inertial board, 9 tactile sensors, and 8 pressure sensors

Various communication devices, including voice synthesizer, LED lights, and 2 high-fidelity speakers

Intel ATOM 1.6 GHz CPU (located in the head) that runs a Linux kernel and supports Aldebaran’s proprietary middleware (NAOqi)
Second CPU (located in the torso)

27.6-watt-hour battery that provides NAO with 1.5 or more hours of autonomy, depending on usage

Posted under humanoid, technology

This post was written by admin on February 24, 2012

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Robonaut in First Human-Robot Handshake in Space

Image for Robonaut 2

Robonaut 2

NASA’s Robonaut 2 (R2) began operations on the International Space Station (ISS) by greeting Commander Dan Burbank with the first “man-robot” handshake in space.

First Robonaut-Astronaut Handshake

First Robonaut-Astronaut Handshake

R2 is a telepresence droid and can be controlled either from Earth or from the ISS. R2 boasts 38 PowerPC processors and over 350 sensors.

Here is a video:

Posted under research, technology, telepresence

This post was written by admin on February 22, 2012

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Robot Learns to Throw

Researchers at the University of Chicago, Cornell University and iRobot who developed the Universal Jamming Gripper have recently taught their robot to throw things!

Why is this so cool?
The Universal Jamming Grippers consists of a balloon filled with sand or coffee grounds. When slightly inflated it can wrap itself around an object. Then when the air is removed the balloon tightens its grip and holds tight.

Universal Jamming Grippers in Action

Universal Jamming Grippers in Action Picking up a Glass of Water

Posted under research, technology

This post was written by admin on February 22, 2012

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Kilobots are Coming!

Photo of Kilobots Ready to Swarm

Kilobots made by the Self-Organizing Systems Research Group

Kilobots are quarter-sized robots that move on three little legs designed to interact and coordinate their behavior. Created by the Self-Organizing Systems Research Group at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) these little robots can be used to experiment with swarming algorithms. They have recently teamed up with the K-Team Corporation, a Swiss manufacturer of high-quality mobile robots, to mass produce kilobots so that researchers and enthusiasts alike can experiment with their own robot swarms.
More information can be found at Science Daily.

Here is a video of Kilobots in action!

Posted under swarm robotics, technology

What is an Anybot?

Anybots Inc. now offers a personal remote avatar, also known as a telepresence droid. You can control the anybot from a web browser and drive it around and interact with the world remotely:

Posted under telepresence

This post was written by admin on February 7, 2012

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Quadcopter Swarm Robotics

The General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania is developing algorithms to control swarms of quadrotors, also known as quadcopters or quadricopters.

Their research group has some amazing videos of quadrotors in coordinated flight, and quadrotors working together to perform a coordinated construction task. The GRASP lab is involved in numerous other projects that are worth checking out.

Here is a video of quadrotors in coordinated flight:

Here they perform a construction task:

The latter video was featured on The Colbert Report.
Amazing work (and a little creepy!)


Gyro RC Helicopter

Posted under autonomous flight, quadcopters, swarm robotics, technology

Knuth Cyberphysics Laboratory

The Knuth Cyberphysics Laboratory investigates the fundamental physics governing the processes of information-driven systems.

Cyberphysics is the physics of information-based control in systems that display a strong coupling between computing and control elements. Such systems are called cyber-physical systems. Cyberphysics is closely related to cybernetics, which is the study of regulatory systems.

Posted under research

This post was written by admin on March 1, 2010

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Don’t Mess with Robots!

A recent BBC show makes it clear why we really shouldn’t get physically aggressive with today’s computer systems!

Posted under fun

This post was written by admin on November 15, 2009

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