Boston Dynamics' Bipedal Robot
PETMAN is an anthropomorphic robot for testing chemical protection clothing. Unlike previous suit testers, which had to be supported mechanically and had a limited repertoire of motion, PETMAN will balance itself and move freely; walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents.
Objet260 Connex At WIRED 2011
Objet Ltd. with be demonstrating their newest 3D Printer at Wired Magazine's inaugural conference in London. The Objet260 Connex is able to use 60 different materials and it can simultaneously build 14 different materials into a single model part with a 16-micron print layer accuracy.
World's First Spherical Flying Machine
DigInfo.tv, a Tokyo-based website recently posted a video from a presentation by the Japan’s Ministry of Defense. The flying orb weighs 350 g, is 42 cm in diameter, and is made of commercially available parts costing a total of around US$1,400. The video below is from the public unveiling:
Working Hand In Hand Without Interruption
Full automatic packaging line of parenteralia in pharmaceutical industry.
Odos Imaging 2+3D Sensor
Odos imaging's 1.3 megapixel 2+3D camera can capture accurate 3D images at 100 frames per second; allowing the system to capture very fast moving objects without degradation even in the brightest sunlight. Combining proprietary technology with conventional 2D image capture, an Odos imaging solution provides unambiguous 3D images at video rates from a single unit. Very short, intense pulses of invisible light are used to illuminate the scene. The high intensity of the pulse minimizes the effect of ambient light and allows for outdoor operation. These pulses are reflected by objects within the scene and are detected by the image sensor. Proprietary algorithms convert the detected pulses into a distance measurement. Simultaneously, a conventional 2D image of the scene is captured. Each pixel on the sensor provides both distance and intensity information.
Robotic Palletizers Paint a Picture of Efficiency
Willingness to invest in future yields big dividends with 76% return on investment in first year.
How Google's Self-Driving Car Works
IEEE Spectrum has an article explaining how Google's new autonom ous vehicles project works. The article is based on a recent presentation that Sebastian Thrun and Chris Urmson gave at keynote speech at the IEEE In ternational Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems . The article can be found here .
IROS 2011 Montage
The IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems took place a few weeks ago in San Francisco. Willow Garage put together a nice montage video of some of the robots on display. Enjoy.
Lean Logistics: Goodyear's Automated Warehouse Puts Customers on Top
With the high number of SKUs, manual sorting capabilities had reached capacity, and Goodyear wanted to protect its workforce from the risk of injuries. It was also essential to have a Supply Chain Deployment strategy that offered real advantages to customers.
A Robot Playing Jenga
Torsten Kröger of Standford programmed a robot arm to play the block stacking game Jenga in order to demonstrate the potential of multi-sensor integration in industrial manipulation. The record height the robot was able to achieve was 28 stages, that is, ten additional stages consisting of 29 blocks that were put onto the top of the original tower.
UCSD's Switchblade Robot
Introducing Coordinated Robotics Lab of University of California San Diego's Switchblade robot .
The treads provide traction over a variety of terrain, but Switchblade has some another trick up its sleeve, each tread assembly can pivot relative to the central chassis. We can use this ability to change the center of mass and climb over obstacles.
Using internal sensors, we can also balance on the end of the treads and stand upright. Video from the onboard camera is streamed to a remote computer for teleoperation. The control system is robust to external disturbances and the robot will return to its original position if knocked out of the way.
Autom Available For Pre-Order
Dr. Cory Kidd's Autom is a robotic personal weight loss coach. A person records their daily diet and exercise routine on the robot's touch screen and Autom gives them vocal encouragement and feedback. Below is the promotional video and more information here.
Gantry Robots and the Case for Automation
Answering the call for smaller individual order volumes, greater product variety per order and significantly higher frequency in distribution, the RMT automated robotic layer and case picking system offers a robust alternative to manual or semi-automated case picking solutions. The additional benefits of automation as outlined above provide significant ROI, and a strong incentive for distribution centers to consider a scalable and fully automated no-fail gantry based case picking system as a viable option and the smart alternative to increasing manual and semi-automated operations to meet demand.
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4 Beta Available For Download
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4 Beta is a freely available .NET-based programming environment for building robotics applications. It can be used by both professional and non-professional developers as well as hobbyists. Microsoft also released a Reference Platform Design specification . Based on the reference platform Parallax.com is manufacturing a unit called Eddie which they will be shipping in October but is available for pre-order now here.
Giving Artificial Hands a Sense of Touch
One of the biggest challenges in prosthetic hand development is designing a method that would let prosthetic hands transmit haptic information — the sense of touch — to patients. Machine Design magazine has an article about Kinea Design's new approach that provides wearers with more sensory information, including contact pressure, friction, texture, and temperature. The full article can be read here.
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IPR Robotics - Right-Sized 7th Axis Robot Linear Rails
IPR Robotics offers a wide range of servo-driven 7th axis linear rails for industrial robots. These rails come in ten different sizes and are constructed from modular high strength extruded aluminum sections to handle payloads of 100 kg to 1600 kg or from steel to handle 2000 kg payloads. This variety of rail sizes allows each application to be sized correctly, controlling the space required and the price point. The drive train design of these rails utilizes helical gear-racks and is proven over 10 years to be repeatable and reliable, even in tough foundry applications.
