Latest in Robotics news thread

[ScienceRocks]

Don't try shaking this robot ape off your car

This cyber-simian from Germany's DFKI keeps its balance even on a wobbly surface. How long before it starts to walk upright?

Here's something I would totally sic my BigDog on, were I lucky enough to own one: a robot ape that can walk around on four legs and may one day stand up on two.

Researchers at Germany's DFKI, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, have been working on what they call the iStruct Demonstrator.

Its purpose is unclear, but with backing from Germany's Space Agency and its application being described as "space robotics," I can only speculate. Planet of the robot apes, perhaps?

Weighing only 40 pounds and powered by lithium-polymer batteries, iStruct is laden with force sensors and accelerometers to keep it moving steadily.

Don't try shaking this robot ape off your car | Cutting Edge - CNET News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Introducing TORO, Germany's new humanoid robot


Introducing TORO, Germany's new humanoid robot

Engineers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have proven once again that they know how to make a snazzy looking robot. Quietly announced to little fanfare, DLR's Robotics and Mechatronics Center recently put the finishing touches on its DLR-Biped, a pair of shiny blue legs that first stepped onto the scene in 2009. Those legs have now been upgraded to the status of a full-fledged humanoid robot, sporting an all-new upper body and a new name: the Torque Controlled Humanoid Robot, or TORO for short.

"Now that the robotic body is complete, we can test processes where the robot carries out sequences of movements with foresight and fluency," explains Project Manager Christian Ott. "If a person opens a heavy door, for example, they do so in a dynamic process; they know subconsciously which moves must be performed. Our robot should be able to do this as well. Another goal is to climb stairs. This involves TORO learning how to pull itself up on a handrail like a human."

 

[Mr. H.]

Watch the video. Kinda cool, kinda creepy LOL.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Soft exosuit offers an alternative to rigid exoskeletons

Powered exoskeletons show great promise both for augmenting the abilities of able-bodied users, and for rehabilitating the disabled. That said, they also tend to be hard-bodied contraptions that don’t look particularly comfortable (or light) to wear. Researchers at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute recently demonstrated what they hope will be a more user-friendly alternative – a “soft exosuit.”

Sensors on the wearer’s lower back, hip, calf and ankle detect user-initiated movements. The system responds to those movements by selectively pumping air into bladders within the suit, providing support and a boost to the user’s own muscle power.

Soft exosuit offers an alternative to rigid exoskeletons

 

[ScienceRocks]

DARPA's ATLAS robot unveiled (w/ Video)

On Monday, July 8, 2013, the seven teams that progressed from DARPA's Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC) arrived at the headquarters of Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Mass. to meet and learn about their new teammate, the ATLAS robot. Like coaches starting with a novice player, the teams now have until late December 2013 to teach ATLAS the moves it will need to succeed in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials where each robot will have to perform a series of tasks similar to what might be required in a disaster response scenario.

Read more at: DARPA's ATLAS robot unveiled (w/ Video)

 

[ScienceRocks]

HUBO ready for DARPA's Robotics Challenge trials (w/ Video)

3 hours ago

The Humanoid Robot Research Center (HUBO Lab) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Rainbow Co., a spin-off venture company of the university, unveiled a new model of HUBO that will be entered in an international robotics competition scheduled later this year.

The competition is hosted and sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is called the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). Kicked off in October 2012, the DRC's goal is to spur the development of advanced robots that can assist humans in mitigating and recovering from future natural and man-made disasters.

Read more at: HUBO ready for DARPA's Robotics Challenge trials (w/ Video)

 

[ScienceRocks]

JPL's Robosimian Advances in DARPA Competition

RoboSimian, an ape-like disaster-recovery robot designed and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has passed a critical design review.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected RoboSimian to advance in competition to the agency's Robotics Trials to be held at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida in December.

A full list of teams progressing to the DARPA Robotics Trials is online at: 2013/07/11 DARPA?s ATLAS Robot Unveiled .

 

[ScienceRocks]

New military underwear to give Iron Man performance

They’re like Underoos for big boys -- but unlike the childhood version covered in Spiderman graphics, these really do give the wearer extra powers.

While on long patrols, often in rugged terrain and extreme temperatures, U.S. service personnel are regularly required to carry a crazy amount of weight. Warfighters often lug 100 pounds or more in body armor, equipment and other essentials.

And as the weight increases, so does the rate of joint and soft-tissue injuries.

Designed by DARPA, the military’s advanced research arm, the Warrior Web undergarment will help prevent injury, reduce fatigue and improve endurance -- and the next phase of testing is about to kick off.

Read more: New military underwear to give Iron Man performance | Fox News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Engineers designing robots to revolutionize farming, ease labor woes

SALINAS, Calif. – On a windy morning in California's Salinas Valley, a tractor pulled a wheeled, metal contraption over rows of budding iceberg lettuce plants. Engineers from Silicon Valley tinkered with the software on a laptop to ensure the machine was eliminating the right leafy buds.

The engineers were testing the Lettuce Bot, a machine that can "thin" a field of lettuce in the time it takes about 20 workers to do the job by hand.

The thinner is part of a new generation of machines that target the last frontier of agricultural mechanization — fruits and vegetables destined for the fresh market, not processing, which have thus far resisted mechanization because they're sensitive to bruising.

Read more: Engineers designing robots to revolutionize farming, ease labor woes | Fox News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Computer smart as a 4-year-old

Artificial and natural knowledge researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have IQ-tested one of the best available artificial intelligence systems to see how intelligent it really is.

Turns out–it's about as smart as the average 4-year-old, they will report July 17 at the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Conference in Bellevue, Wash.

The UIC team put ConceptNet 4, an artificial intelligence system developed at M.I.T., through the verbal portions of the Weschsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Test, a standard IQ assessment for young children.

Read more at: Computer smart as a 4-year-old

 

[ScienceRocks]

Naro-nanin educational robot fish takes a dip

A new breed of robot fish that is both relatively inexpensive and highly customizable is teaching students between the ages of 10 and 18 about technology and biology. It's the latest in a line of biologically-inspired underwater robots developed within the naro (nautical robots) project at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), which has previously developed robots based on tuna fish and sea turtles.

Naro-nanin educational robot fish takes a dip

 

[ScienceRocks]

ERO demolition robot concept recycles on the fly


ERO demolition robot concept recycles on the fly

When it comes to demolishing buildings, there are almost as many ways to take them apart as put them up. We knock them down, blow them to bits, and build machines to take them apart. But what about a robot that eats buildings? Omer Haciomeroglu of Sweden’s Umeå Institute of Design has come up with the concept ERO concrete de-construction robot, which uses high-pressure water jets to strip concrete from rebar and recycle it on the spot

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[ScienceRocks]

RoboSimian is JPL's ape-inspired first responder

Later this year, DARPA will be hosting what promises to be a watershed event in the world of robotics: the Robotics Challenge. Huge, expensive robots will have to navigate obstacle courses and complete complex tasks that simulate how robots might be able to help out after a major disaster. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) recently announced that they will be entering the fray with their monkey-based robot, RoboSimian. With four general purpose limbs and no real front, RoboSimian is designed for both economy of motion and enhanced perceptual awareness.

RoboSimian is JPL's ape-inspired first responder | DVICE

 

[ScienceRocks]

Here’s a Look at the World’s ‘First Smart Restaurant,’ Kitchen-Free and Run by Robots


Here?s a Look at the World?s ?First Smart Restaurant,' Kitchen-Free and Run by Robots | FoodbeastFoodbeast

Earlier this year, we caught wind of a young robotics company out of San Francisco that had created its very own burger making machine. Just insert tomatoes, pickles, onions, lettuce, buns and meat and out the other end pops — you guessed it — a fully-cooked, ready-to-eat, “gourmet” hamburger.

We’ve already explored the implications a machine like this would have on the QSR market, the human jobs it would replace, but up until a few days ago, all we really had was speculation (and our own over-active imaginations). Well my friends, imaginate no longer! The global robo- takeover is officially upon us.

But it’s not as bad as you think.

Momentum Machines – the minds behind the burger maker — have expressed plans to create their own “smart restaurant” chain, serving burgers made by their own crime-fighting cooking robots. According to the company’s site, the technology will provide “the means for the next generation of restaurant design and operation.”

 

[ScienceRocks]

Driverless tractors till German high-tech farm

10 hours ago by Benoit Toussaint

As the harvest nears, the employees of German farmer Klaus Muenchhoff are busy making the final checks on imposing tractors ready to roll into the golden fields.
But these tractors are steel monsters with a difference—driverless and satellite-guided, they can operate on the fields with an accuracy of a few centimetres (inches).

Impervious to fatigue and indifferent to poor visibility, they reduce distances travelled by each vehicle, saving their owner fuel costs and improving crop yields.

Read more at: Driverless tractors till German high-tech farm

 

[ScienceRocks]

Fish-tracking robots take to the seas and skies off Portugal

A unique field experiment being conducted off the coast of Portugal this week combines ocean robotics and marine biology in a complex aquatic dance. Researchers are using a fleet of robotic vehicles to track over a dozen Mola mola (ocean sunfish) as they forage across the coastal ocean. During this experiment, engineers and marine biologists are working together to test new techniques for tracking multiple animals in real time, collecting environmental data in the water around each animal, and controlling and coordinating a diverse group of robotic vehicles. Collaborators are also testing advanced capabilities for seafloor mapping and for search and rescue, in concert with local maritime authorities.

Read more at: Fish-tracking robots take to the seas and skies off Portugal

 

[ScienceRocks]

Paper-thin e-skin responds to touch
July 22, 2013 9:49 am | by Sarah Yang, UC Berkeley | News |

A research team led by Ali Javey of the Univ. of California, Berkeley, has created the first user-interactive sensor network on flexible plastic. The new electronic skin, or e-skin, responds to touch by instantly lighting up. The more intense the pressure, the brighter the light it emits.

http://www.rdmag.com/news/2013/07/paper-thin-e-skin-responds-touch

 

[ScienceRocks]

Stainless steel robot arm designed to experiment with drugs

Stainless steel robot arm designed to experiment with drugs

If you were designing a robotic arm for use in pharmaceutical research, you’d want to make it easy to sterilize between uses. That’s why Kawasaki Heavy Industries has encased its snazzy-looking new MSR05 arm entirely in stainless steel.

Recently demonstrated at the Interphex Japan pharmaceutical industry trade show, the MSR05 is intended specifically for use in drug discovery experiments involving dangerous substances. In order to minimize the risk of contamination taking place within those experiments, the whole assembly can be safely sterilized using hydrogen peroxide gas.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Artificial muscle contracts and expands with changes in humidity

2 hours ago

(Phys.org) —A small plastic strip can do "weight training" to effortlessly lifts many times its own weight, driven by cyclic changes in the humidity of the surrounding air. This strong "artificial arm" is based on the interaction between microgels and a layer of polycations that shrinks as it dries, according to a report presented by Canadian researchers in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Read more at: Artificial muscle contracts and expands with changes in humidity

 

[ScienceRocks]

Japan's IBIS keyhole surgery robot demonstrated (w/ Video)

A group of robotics scientists in Japan have demonstrated their pneumatic robot, IBIS, which is designed for performing keyhole surgery. They say it may cost as little as one tenth the price of its main rival, Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci robot.

The team of scientists from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TokyoTech), have been developing their robotics system for some years. It consists of a master unit connected to a slave unit. The master unit is operated by the surgeon, who views the surgery on a stereoscopic 3D display and moves the robot's arms by means of two finger- and hand-operated joysticks with multiple controls. The slave unit consists of pneumatically driven arms that carry out the delicate surgery.

Read more at: Japan's IBIS keyhole surgery robot demonstrated (w/ Video)