Posts Tagged ‘robots’
Bug-Like Robotic Drones Becoming More Bug-Like, With Bulging Eyes and Tiny, Sensing Hairs
The main problem with MAVs has to do with the way they respond (or don’t respond) to dynamic environments--things like shifting or gusting winds, moving bodies, and other variables that have to be accounted for in realtime. MAVs are tiny, so there’s not a lot of space for computing assets or sensor payloads, and that leads to a sort of intractable problem: how can engineers make these things smaller and more capable while also adding increased situational awareness and better in-flight processing?
When facing a tough problem like this never hurts, and that’s exactly where the Pentagon is looking with its recent contracts. If two research stipends recently handed down are any indication, the micro-drones of the future may have tiny hair-like sensors all over their bodies and big, compound eyes.
The cilia-like hairs will serve to keep the drones’ hovering and flight stable by sensing changes in air flow at the tiniest levels. That means the drone could sense a wind gust coming shortly before it arrives, allowing it to compensate for the change in circumstance. It would also aid in maintaining overall stability during flight, as the MAVs central processor would possess a constant awareness of--and the ability to manipulate--the boundary flow layer of air surrounding the drone as it hovers and flies.
The bug-like compound eyes would similarly help MAVs navigate in cluttered spaces by increasing the amount of visual data available to the drones’ processors. An on-board minicomputer would process images in realtime, using those visual cues to automatically avoid obstacles and navigate cleanly and efficiently.
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Video: DARPA’s AlphaDog Gets Up, Scrambles Over Rocks and Runs
It runs along a guide rail, keeps its balance after two guys try to tip it over, and rights itself after lying on its side, not unlike your pet getting up from its nap.
As we heard , AlphaDog is designed to carry 400 pounds, last 24 hours and carry enough fuel for a 20-mile trip. It is also significantly quieter than its predecessor, BigDog, which further solidifies AD’s position as leader of the pack.
This video shows a lab prototype undergoing early tests, according to Boston Dynamics. It's being developed under DARPA's Legged Squad Support System (LS3) project. DARPA and the Marines are expected to take this beast for a walk sometime in 2012.
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Video: Da Vinci Surgical Robot Deftly Peels a Grape
The footage comes via an event at Southmead Hospital in the U.K. aimed at raising awareness of men’s cancers. To show just how effective Da Vinci can be in the operating room, urology fellow Ramesh Thurairaja grabbed the sticks and delicately showed a grape just what Da Vinci is capable of.
There are more than 1,000 Da Vinci robots worldwide, and this particular robot has performed 450 prostate cancer removals alone. No man wants to think of his grapes anywhere near the forceful hands of a massive multi-armed machine, but this demo shows just how magnificently precise and steady-handed our robot surgeons can be.
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Inside the Factory: How a Chef’s Knife Is Made
PopSci goes to Germany to witness the cutting edge of manufacturing
The raw material comes into the factory on huge spools of sheet steel, each sheet the thickness of a knife. The steel is cut into individual blanks, destined to become individual knives. About three weeks elapse between when a blank comes off the spool and when it emerges, a finished knife, at the other end.
In my breathless tour of the factory, I watched as a giant press cut and stacked the blanks, which are made of the company's secret blend of stainless "special formula steel." The blank is transported to another building, where the first of the factory's 90-odd industrial robot arms takes it in hand.
In the classic design, the knife has a thickening where the blade meets the handle (aka the bolster). This is formed first, by heating the middle of the blank, and then pressing the metal's two ends together so the molten middle bulges and widens, in a process that my contact specifies is called upset forging. Next, a drop forge shapes the bolster, before the blank is quickly cropped into the rough shape of the knife it's going to be.
After that, it proceeds through a series of cooling, supercooling, and heat-tempering steps that give it its corrosion resistance and toughness. This is one of the benefits of the special steel, I'm told -- it heats and cools in very predictable ways, allowing the factory to use more precise temperatures rather than temperature ranges.
After the tempering, any distortions or warpings that the heat has created in the blade are hammered out by a highly skilled human, who picks up and eyes each knife, one at a time, and flattens any that need flattening with precise strokes of a little hammer.
The knife passes into the hands of another series of robots, which use grinding wheels to narrow down the thickish blank into the tapered contour of a blade. Only roughly, though -- the fine grinding and sharpening, as well as putting on the handles, is left to the factory's humans, who wear puffy gray overalls and exude the confidence that comes with being extremely good at your job, and quite possibly coming from a line of knifemakers generations old. Wooden handles are glued onto the tang of the knife and then riveted in place; plastic handles are simply melted on by heating the tang and inserting it in a ready handle. The edges of the handles are smoothed by robots.
Finally the knife is cleaned and passes onward to the scrutiny of the quality assurance women. If it has no flaws -- there's a big photo-book of possible flaws -- it gets packed up and winds up in someone's kitchen.
Check out the of pictures from the knifemaking process.
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BullDog: A Bigger, Scarier Version of BigDog Gets Closer to the Battlefield
Boston Dynamics is building a bigger, sturdier version of the military’s future trusty companion, and will likely unveil it within a few months. The company’s founder and president, Marc Raibert, shared the LS3 robot's progress Tuesday at a keynote speech at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Apparently LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) has been nicknamed BullDog, .
Alas, no fun video yet, as Boston Dynamics is apparently waiting for permission from DARPA to release it.
BullDog, like BigDog, is designed to carry hundreds of pounds of gear for armed forces, ambling over rough terrain and following humans without complaint. The larger version will carry 400 pounds, last 24 hours and carry enough fuel for a 20-mile trek. It will also be able to jump over obstacles, and more easily regain its footing after it falls over. BullDog will also have greater navigational autonomy than BigDog, IEEE says.
The most significant change may be that it’s significantly quieter than BigDog, which is quite obnoxiously, buzzingly loud:
Granted, a prancing, unstoppable four-legged metal beast probably doesn’t need stealth to look awesome and surprise the enemy.
BullDog is a 30-month, $32 million project funded by DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office and the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Lab. The project started in early 2010, so we anticipate a full unveiling sometime next year.
Until then, content yourselves with some of .
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A Heated Robotic Mother Hen Improves Quail Chicks’ Spatial Learning Abilities
QuailBot has a space between its wheels where chicks can go get warm
Researchers at the University of Rennes in France built two comfy cube-shaped robotic mother hens, and introduced them to 36-hour-old Japanese quail chicks. The team took 24 chicks and divided them into groups of four. All six groups hung out with the robot for an hour a day for 10 days in a row, according to an . Three groups spent time with a mobilized version of the robot, and three groups got a stationary one. The chicks stopped interacting with the robot after the 10th day.
On the 13th day, the researchers placed the chicks back with their robots and watched what happened. The chicks with the mobile robot mother moved around a lot more, emitting more distress calls. The chicks with the immovable object mother were less active.
On the 14th day, the researchers placed the chicks facing each other, with a grid in the way. The chicks with the mobile mommy navigated around the grid more quickly than the chicks with a stationary HenBot, the researchers said. All this is to show that the chicks with a mobile robot mother had a slight advantage in spatial understanding.
But here’s the rub: This evaporated after a few days. On the 20th day, the team repeated the grid experiment, and found the chicks with the stationary robot had improved so much, there was no longer a significant difference in their behavior.
Still, it’s an interesting example of how robotic technology can impact animal development. Imagine a zoo or a rehabilitation center with some orphaned animals; if they have a movable object the birds can bond with, the birds might do a little better, this study suggests.
The other QuailBot we’ve seen was developed to monitor . It's nice to know this new QuailBot could conceivably help their offspring.
The study was published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.
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Video: Watch BigDog, PopSci’s Favorite Quadruped Bot, Romp and Grow Through the Years
With its own theme song to boot
Several of them have been — click for a clip of BigDog scrambling to regain its balance after slipping on a patch of ice, for instance. But the below video has the added bonus of a new bluesy theme song, with a beat seemingly written to match BigDog’s jaunty gait.
BigDog uses a system of hyper-responsive hydraulic joints, sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes to keep it on its four legs. Boston Dynamics says the creature can run at 4 mph, climb slopes up to 35 degrees, walk across a wide range of terrain, and carry 340 pounds. It’s designed to go wherever humans would go, carrying their load without complaint or the urge to sniff the ground every six inches. It’s funded by DARPA, naturally.
In pup mode, it performs a doglike “let’s-play” stretch; later in its life, it gets down to business, leaping like a greyhound and tromping through the snow like an AT-AT walker. Turn up the sound and check it out.