Beginners Tutorial: Autonomous Robot Control Theory
From Nick McCrea at Toptal:
In this article, I’m going to describe the control scheme of my simulated robot, illustrate how it interacts with its environment and achieves its goals, and discuss some of the fundamental challenges of robotics that I encountered along the way... (full article)
Robotic Biopsy System Drives the Point Home
Compact, high-torque motors precisely control biopsy needle to improve speed, efficiency, and radiation exposure.
Unbounded Robotics to Shut Down Due to Issues With Willow Garage Spin-Off Agreement
From Evan Ackerman at IEEE Spectrum:
IEEE Spectrum has learned that Unbounded Robotics, a spin-off of Willow Garage that developed the UBR-1 mobile manipulator, is currently "in the process of shutting down." The UBR-1 is no longer for sale.
Recently, a source (who asked not to be named) forwarded us an email from Unbounded Robotics CEO Melonee Wise. Our source received the message after requesting a quote for a UBR-1 robot:
"Unfortunately Unbounded Robotics is in the process of shutting down due to issues with our Willow Garage spin off agreement that prevents us from raising series A investment. Unbounded Robotics is no longer selling the UBR-1.... (cont'd)
Upcoming Tradeshow, Conference & Exhibition Summary - September, October, November
Back to school and back to work with the tradeshow schedule for the Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing industry heating up.
This year RoboticsTomorrow has setup a special newspage devoted to news and announcements from International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS 2014) taking place beginning of September.
A Restaurant In China Where All The Food Is Prepared And Served By Robots
Vacuum-based Bag Handling
Traditionally, vacuum-based bag handling systems have been marred by problems to the extent that it has been almost impossible to use them.
Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge 2014
Introduction:
This challenge evaluates algorithms for object detection and image classification at large scale. This year there will be two competitions:
A PASCAL-style detection challenge on fully labeled data for 200 categories of objects, and
An image classification plus object localization challenge with 1000 categories.
NEW: This year all participants are encouraged to submit object localization results; in past challenges, submissions to classification and classification with localization tasks were accepted separately.One high level motivation is to allow researchers to compare progress in detection across a wider variety of objects -- taking advantage of the quite expensive labeling effort. Another motivation is to measure the progress of computer vision for large scale image indexing for retrieval and annotation... (rules and results)
New York Times article:
Started in 2010 by Stanford, Princeton and Columbia University scientists, the Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge this year drew 38 entrants from 13 countries. The groups use advanced software, in most cases modeled loosely on the biological vision systems, to detect, locate and classify a huge set of images taken from Internet sources like Twitter. The contest was sponsored this year by Google, Stanford, Facebook and the University of North Carolina.
Contestants run their recognition programs on high-performance computers based in many cases on specialized processors called G.P.U.s, for graphic processing units.
This year there were six categories based on object detection, locating objects and classifying them... (cont'd)
Rising Colorspace
Rising Colorspace is a site-specific installation for “Metropol Park“ at Köllnischer Park 6-7 in Berlin. It is the third systemic robot installation of our colorspace series.
A robot draws his rising movements as bowlike lines onto a shiny metallic wall. All turns and falling movements are left out. Thereof derives a wickerwork of lines in rich botanic coloration. This condenses to a colorspace. Each line grows like a bending culm and modulates the colorspace after a daily color-protocol."¨ Rising Colorspace is an evolving system continuously overwriting itself... (cont'd)
Digital Design using CAD/CAM for Innovative Robotic Design
With 3D CAD software, designers can actually simulate a robot's capabilities by reviewing how the robot's construction will be effected by the selected materials.
Why I Automate - This Robot is Changing How We Cure Diseases
The benefits of automating a medical research lab include sifting through massive amounts of data in a short period of time.
T100 Underwater Thruster Designed for Marine Robotics
From BlueRobotics' Kickstarter:
An efficient, rugged, affordable underwater thruster to propel the future of marine robotics and ocean exploration. ($100 dollars a thruster, est delivery Nov 2014)
The T100 is made of high-strength, UV resistant polycarbonate injection molded plastic. The core of the motor is sealed and protected with an epoxy coating and it uses high-performance plastic bearings in place of steel bearings that rust in saltwater. Everything that isn’t plastic is either aluminum or high-quality stainless steel that doesn’t corrode.
A specially designed propeller and nozzle provides efficient, powerful thrust while active water-cooling keeps the motor cool. Unlike other thrusters, our design doesn’t have any air- or oil-filled cavities - water flows freely through all parts of the motor while it's running. That means it can go deep in the ocean and handle extreme pressures.
The thruster is easy to use: just connect the three motor wires to any brushless electronic speed controller (ESC) and you can control it with an RC radio or a microcontroller. It's usable with Arduino, ArduPilot, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, and many other embedded platforms... (kickstarter)
Coding & Marking Challenges: Common Industrial Print Techniques and Their Challenges
If a barcode or marking is unreadable, it can result in recalls, unhappy customers, and even fines. It is important to identify these issues early by implementing regular checks and verification to ensure quality.
Self-Folding Origami Robot Goes From Flat to Walking in Four Minutes
From IEEE Spectrum:
Printable, self-folding robot created by Harvard and MIT researchers... (IEEE Spectrum story) (full paper)
Hitchbot is Halfway Across its Canadian Journey
From hitchBOT's page:
I am hitchBOT — a robot from Port Credit, Ontario.
I am traveling from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Victoria, British Columbia this summer. As you may have guessed, robots cannot get driver’s licences yet, so I’ll be hitchhiking my entire way... (cont'd)
Nvidia Jetson TK1 Development Kit
Features ($192 ):
Tegra K1 SOC
Kepler GPU with 192 CUDA cores
4-Plus-1 quad-core ARM Cortex A15 CPU
2 GB x16 memory with 64 bit width
16 GB 4.51 eMMC memory
1 Half mini-PCIE slot
1 Full size SD/MMC connector
1 Full-size HDMI port
1 USB 2.0 port, micro AB
1 USB 3.0 port, A
1 RS232 serial port
1 ALC5639 Realtek Audio codec with Mic in and Line out
1 RTL8111GS Realtek GigE LAN
1 SATA data port
SPI 4MByte boot flash
Dr. Dobbs has an in depth look here.
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Featured Product
Harmonic Drive - Coming Soon! Integrated Actuators with EtherCAT
The IDT Series is a family of compact actuators with an integrated servo drive with
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greatly simplify cabling.
Robotics and Automation - Featured Company
PI USA (Physik Instrumente)
PI is a privately held company that designs and manufactures world-class precision motion and automation systems including air bearings, hexapods and piezo drives at locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company was founded 5 decades ago and today employs more than 1700 people worldwide. PI's customers are leaders in high-tech industries and research institutes in fields such as photonics, life-sciences, semiconductors and aerospace.
