Posts Tagged ‘autonomous robot’
Japanese Robots Will Run In First-Ever Full-Length Robot Marathon
The research firm Vstone is putting together the world’s first , involving 422 laps around a 100-meter track. Imagine this little robo-scurry on a 42-kilometer scale.
The video shows Vstone's Robovie-PC robot autonomously following a line. Marathon competitors will either “run” autonomously like this bot, or they may be operated by humans using remote controls, according to Vstone. The event’s time, date and place are still to be determined.
As points out, it’s more like a robot NASCAR, because the rules allow competitors to replace worn parts and count the entire time, including stops, in the robot’s official score.
The total distance is 26.2 miles, so odds are some robot feet, gears and motors may be wearing out.
The Robovie will be a tough competitor, with its 20 degrees of freedom and 1.3 megapixel headcam, which helps it navigate. The robot’s 1.6 GHz processor gives it the computing power of a standard PC, and it can connect to the Internet.
It might not be as fun as a ballet or a robo soccer game, but endurance trials can help test robots’ durability, which will probably be more important than a single trick once we welcome them into our lives.
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Autonomous Swarming Robots Can Skim Sea Surface, Collecting Oil As A Team
The belt is made of an ultra-light nanowire mesh, patented at MIT, that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil. Its hydrophobic properties deflect water while sucking up various forms of pollution. The nanowire's inventors have compared it to a paper towel for oil spills.
The belt attaches to a yellow “head” covered in photovoltaic panels, according to its designers, based at MIT’s Senseable City Lab. As the robot moves head-first through the water, the conveyor belt sucks up oil, which is squeezed out into the head. As the clean part of the belt emerges from the head, the process starts over.
Seaswarm robots are intended to work as a fleet, hence the name. The robots would communicate via GPS and WiFi networks to coordinate clean-up, and they would not require human involvement, unlike current ocean skimmers. They are just 16 feet long by seven feet wide, so they would be able to access coastlines, marshes and estuaries, unlike current skimmers that attach to boats.
The design team tested their prototype in Boston’s Charles River this month and they say the conveyor belt easily adapted to the surface waves.
The robot works by detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward until it has removed the oil, the project's Web site says. Because the robot's head consumes the oil, the robot does not need to make repeated trips back to shore, making it a much more efficient cleaner.