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Posts Tagged ‘dlr’

Researchers at Technical University Munich built a kitchen for Rosie and their PR2, nicknamed James, and the two previously learned how to make pancakes. The goal is to test how well the robots’ perception and control mechanisms can be generalized, because they share the same operating system and visual-detection systems via the Xbox Kinect.

In the first part of the video, James goes grocery shopping in a lab set up by the CoTeSys (Cognition for Technical Systems) research cluster. He brings the ingredients to Rosie, who is already boiling the Weisswurst, waiting for the sausages to cook before taking them out of the water and placing them in bowls. Then the PR2 slices bread and serves breakfast to a group of robotics engineers. Mysteriously, the meal lacks a glass of hefeweizen, a gross oversight given the PR2's known beer-grabbing abilities.

Rosie uses the Kinect and perception algorithms to use the skimmer, and learns 3-D models for the pot of water and the serving bowls so she can find them no matter where the PR2 sets them down. James also uses the Kinect to detect a bread slicer and a baguette, which he prepares to serve with the sausages. In the course of making breakfast, the robots learn from their mistakes and improve their abilities, as a news release from TUM explains. The software and algorithms used in this demonstration will be available to other TUM researchers.

Watch their culinary skills in action, accompanied by appropriately German-sounding club music.

[IEEE Spectrum]

Researchers at Technical University Munich built a kitchen for Rosie and their PR2, nicknamed James, and the two previously learned how to make pancakes. The goal is to test how well the robots’ perception and control mechanisms can be generalized, because they share the same operating system and visual-detection systems via the Xbox Kinect.

In the first part of the video, James goes grocery shopping in a lab set up by the CoTeSys (Cognition for Technical Systems) research cluster. He brings the ingredients to Rosie, who is already boiling the Weisswurst, waiting for the sausages to cook before taking them out of the water and placing them in bowls. Then the PR2 slices bread and serves breakfast to a group of robotics engineers. Mysteriously, the meal lacks a glass of hefeweizen, a gross oversight given the PR2's known beer-grabbing abilities.

Rosie uses the Kinect and perception algorithms to use the skimmer, and learns 3-D models for the pot of water and the serving bowls so she can find them no matter where the PR2 sets them down. James also uses the Kinect to detect a bread slicer and a baguette, which he prepares to serve with the sausages. In the course of making breakfast, the robots learn from their mistakes and improve their abilities, as a news release from TUM explains. The software and algorithms used in this demonstration will be available to other TUM researchers.

Watch their culinary skills in action, accompanied by appropriately German-sounding club music.

[IEEE Spectrum]

The point is to test the DLR Hand Arm System, an ultra-tough system with 52 motors and joints that can absorb energy the way human ones do. The robot’s toughness could prevent breakdowns in industrial settings, home use or any other place where a robot might bump into something.

After a whack with a baseball bat, the arm worked just as well as before, gently touching a yellow ball.

The arm consists of newly designed floating spring joints, which help dissipate energy better than a rigid structure could. They have two motors, one to control the joint and another small one to adjust its stiffness. The hand also has 38 tendons tougher than Kevlar, according to IEEE Spectrum. The tendons are attached to a spring-based elastic mechanism, which also allows the fingers to release and store energy.

IEEE Spectrum explains in more detail, reporting on the robot from the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Shanghai.

Watch the arm take a beating below, to the apparent glee of its human handler.

[IEEE]

The above image is a snapshot of the Orion nebula, taken with a special camera optimized for mid-infrared light. No telescope on the ground or in space can make observations in that range, so although this picture is a little fuzzy, it’s actually full of useful information, according to NASA.

NASA, which operates Sofia in partnership with the German space agency DLR, said the science flight validates Sofia’s capabilities. Sofia flies above 99 percent of the atmosphere’s water vapor, which allows it to receive about 80 percent of the infrared light visible to the orbiting observatories. It can see light ranging from ultraviolet to the far infrared.

NASA says the image is a composite of two IR filters and reveals detailed structures in the star-forming clouds, and heat radiating from a cluster of newborn stars at the upper right. We’ll have to take NASA’s word for it.

DLR, the German aerospace agency, is showing a new pair of legs. DLR-Biped, which could use a new name, is a four-foot-eight walking research platform that was developed in less than a year.

It was designed to study ways of walking, especially for domestic service robots, according to Plastic Pals, so it doesn't have much in the way of an upper body. Reportedly it is the first bipedal robot with torque-controlled joints -- it has six in each leg, as well as six-axis torque sensors in its feet.

The upper legs were made from existing robot arms, which explains their sort of armlike appearance. The lower legs were designed from scratch.

[DLR via Plastic Pals]

Germany's TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement) successfully separated from its carrier rocket and was put into a polar orbit slightly inclined to the one it's sister satellite, TerraSAR-X. Together, the two will dance an intricate orbital tango as TanDEM-X flies a tight pattern around TerraSAR at an altitude of about 320 miles above the Earth. It's the first time two satellites will orbit in such a tight formation for such an extended period.

By bouncing microwaves pulses off the planet's surface and timing the return signals, the satellites' highly sensitive instruments will be able to map the entire land surface of the earth in extreme detail. TerraSAR-X alone has been able to map the surface to within an accuracy of about 30 feet, but with TanDEM-X at its side that accuracy should be pared down to within six-and-a-half feet.

A 3-D map that accurate will have vast military, research, civil, and commercial applications, ranging from tighter low-flying routes for strategic aircraft to better-organized search and rescue plans during earthquakes to more accurate city planning and land use assessments. Further, while other 3-D topographic maps have been piecemeal efforts, the TanDEM-X mission will be one single, cohesive map of the entire surface of the planet. With the satellites both in orbit, work now is focusing on upping the resolution so allow the rendering of detailed, massive images from the data collected from a single pass overhead.

[BBC]