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
This post was written by admin on March 9, 2012
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
This post was written by admin on March 2, 2012
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
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
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
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 Picking up a Glass of Water
Posted under research, technology
This post was written by admin on February 22, 2012
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
This post was written by admin on February 9, 2012
Anybots Inc. now offers a personal remote avatar
Posted under telepresence
This post was written by admin on February 7, 2012
The General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania is developing algorithms to control swarms of quadrotors
Their research group has some amazing videos of quadrotors
Here is a video of quadrotors
Here they perform a construction task:
The latter video was featured on The Colbert Report.
Amazing work (and a little creepy!)
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Posted under autonomous flight, quadcopters, swarm robotics, technology
This post was written by admin on February 4, 2012
