Web Concepts

Posts Tagged ‘robot arm’

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]

Researchers at the University of California-Davis have applied for a patent on the robot, which they say could be used for search and rescue operations as well as robotics research.

Its two modules have two joints at the center, which can rotate 180 degrees, and two rotating faceplates at each end, as the researchers explain. The faceplates turn continuously, allowing the robot to roll along as though it were driving. Future research will explore clusters of iMobots working together in even larger modular platforms.

Creators Graham Ryland and Harry Cheng received a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant to start Barobo Inc., a business aimed at commercializing the iMobot. You can find out how to get one here.

Modular robots could be a more cost-effective way to build robot helpers for a variety of tasks, like search-and-rescue snakebots or tree-climbing spy cams. The inventors hope it will be for sale by the end of the year.

[R&D Magazine]

Researchers at the University of California-Davis have applied for a patent on the robot, which they say could be used for search and rescue operations as well as robotics research.

Its two modules have two joints at the center, which can rotate 180 degrees, and two rotating faceplates at each end, as the researchers explain. The faceplates turn continuously, allowing the robot to roll along as though it were driving. Future research will explore clusters of iMobots working together in even larger modular platforms.

Creators Graham Ryland and Harry Cheng received a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant to start Barobo Inc., a business aimed at commercializing the iMobot. You can find out how to get one here.

Modular robots could be a more cost-effective way to build robot helpers for a variety of tasks, like search-and-rescue snakebots or tree-climbing spy cams. The inventors hope it will be for sale by the end of the year.

[R&D Magazine]

And after 50 or so tries (and some kinesthetic training), he does

After about 50 attempts, the arm is finally able to perfect its wrist-flipping technique, so the fake metal flapjack flips and lands in the skillet. You almost want to start clapping.

The robot learned its skillet skills through kinesthetic teaching, where the user grasps and moves the robot to provide an example of how to flip a pancake. Roboticists Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon from the Italian Institute of Technology helped the robot build on what they taught.

It is called reinforcement learning, and it works by allowing the robot to reproduce the task in different configurations, so it figures out for itself what it needs to do.

For instance, the robot’s arm needs to be stiff to throw the pancake in the air and make it flip. Catching it requires the robot hand to be pliant and have “give,” so it can catch the pancake without it bouncing off.

[via Make:Online]