Unmanned Systems
Smart phones and new apps will dramatically improve the way unmanned systems distribute and deliver situational awareness to our troops while at the same time significantly reducing the command and control costs of unmanned systems.
The Inebriator
The Inebriator is a home made automated cocktail machine. The Inebriator is powered by an Arduino Mega 2560 Microprocessor Project Board. A Hitachi HD44780 compatible display is used to allow display drink information, coupled with a couple of buttons to navigate the menu. A stepper motor is used to drive the drinks shelf, with acceleration and deceleration to allow high speed without spilling. All mixers are in plastic bottles in a cool box, each bottle has two pipes, one that is hooked to the gas tank (70% Nitrogen and 30% Carbon Dioxide), and the other goes from the bottom of the bottle to a valve. When the gas tank is opened (through a regulator) the bottles are pressurised to a low safe pressure. When 12v is applied to the valve it opens, and the pressure causes the liquid to flow through the pipe and ultimately into the glass. Each mixer has its own valve and individually controllable.
Palm Sized Robot Dragonfly Up On Kickstarter-like Indiegogo
TechJect, a company formed from Georgia Tech's Robotics & Intelligent Machines Lab is looking for crowd funding of their robot dragon fly. They are looking for $110,000 and are currently at $73,000 with 54 days left so there is a good chance they will reach their goal. They are offering several different models of the dragonfly. The most basic $100 dollar model is sold out but you Delta Dragonfly for a $179 dollar donation or for $250 you can get one with WiFi and a camera. Check out their video below and their Indiegogo page for all the donation and models available.
Wired Editor Chris Anderson Leaves To Run 3D Robotics/DIY Drones
From Venture Beat:
Wired editor Chris Anderson is leaving the magazine after 11 years as its editor-in-chief to run a robotics company he founded, 3D Robotics.
Anderson made the announcement at an all-hands meeting for Wired staffers in San Francisco friday.
3D Robotics has a Facebook page, Twitter account, and domain name (3drobotics.com), but currently no website. Currently, that URL redirects to DIY Drones, another company Anderson founded, which sells kits and parts for people making their own unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — robotic aircraft, essentially. It appears that 3D Robotics is an outgrowth of that company. ( cont'd )
Automation Fair 2012
Today, the Automation Fair event is regarded by manufacturers, media and analysts as the premier automation industry event. It is uniquely designed to help customers learn about the latest automated manufacturing technologies and trends, and learn how to use their automation investments to achieve their business goals.
Easily And Quickly Implementing Automatic Bin Picking
The positions of unsorted randomly distributed objects in different depths of large containers can be determined three-dimensionally with moving laser lines.
Connecting the Robotics Industry
There are now more connected devices in this world than dollars in the deficit. And the definition of success in business has changed from closed shops to standard modular construction and software that allows all sorts of players to add to the core products that are built.
13 Truths about "Smart Cameras"
Clearly there are a range of issues with "smart cameras." However, one may still be right for you - either today or even into the future. Yet, at this point you should be keenly aware of their various shortcomings - clear of advertising bias - to make an educated decision.
Aspect Automation and Universal Robots
No software expertise needed. The robot comes with a touch screen teach pendant as the main method of programming. In teach mode, the robot can be manually moved about its workspace to be taught positions for the program.
New DARPA's Pet-Proto Video
In this video, the Pet-Proto, a predecessor to DARPA's Atlas robot, is confronted with obstacles similar to those robots might face in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). To maneuver over and around the obstacles, the robot exercises capabilities including autonomous decision-making, dismounted mobility and dexterity. The DARPA Robotics Challenge will test these and other capabilities in a series of tasks that will simulate conditions in a dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environment. Teams participating in Tracks B and C of the DRC will compete for access to a modified version of the Atlas robot for use in the 2013 and 2014 live disaster-response challenge events.
Last Nights Robot Hall of Fame Inducts NAO, PackBot, BigDog and WALL-E
The Robot Hall of Fame® inducted four robots chosen for the first time by a popular vote — Aldebaran Robotics' NAO humanoid, iRobot's PackBot bomb disposal robot, Boston Dynamics' four-legged BigDog and WALL-E, the fictional robot of the namesake Pixar movie — during a ceremony tonight at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.
"More than any previous class of inductees, this group of robots selected by popular vote represents contemporary robotics — robots at the cutting edge of technology — rather than older robots of strictly historical importance," said Shirley Saldamarco, Robot Hall of Fame director and a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. "Two of our inductees, NAO and Packbot, are commercially available and BigDog is still the focus of active research. Even our fictional honoree, WALL-E, is from a movie that's just four years old."
More than 17,000 people across every continent except Antarctica participated in the online vote in August and September. The 12 nominees on this year's ballot were chosen by a group of 107 robotics experts, industry leaders and aficionados selected by the Robot Hall of Fame (RHOF).
The RHOF, created in 2003 by Carnegie Mellon University, recognizes excellence in robotics technology. It honors both the fictional robots that inspire innovation and the real robots that embody it. In 2009, it was integrated into Carnegie Science Center's roboworld™ exhibit.
The new inductees were elected in four categories: Education & Consumer; Entertainment; Industrial & Service; and Research.
NAO was inducted in the Education & Consumer category. An autonomous, programmable, humanoid robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics in 2006, the 22-inch-tall robot is used as an education platform and in the RoboCup robot soccer Standard Platform League. Other nominees in this category were iRobot's CREATE and the VEX Robotics Design System.
In the Entertainment category, voters chose WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class), the lovable star of the 2008 Disney/Pixar blockbuster by the same name. In the movie, WALL-E inadvertently embarks on a space journey that ultimately decides the fate of mankind. Other nominees in this category were Rosie the maid from the cartoon series "The Jetsons" and Johnny 5 from the 1986 movie "Short Circuit."
PackBot won in the Industrial & Service category. Created by iRobot, PackBot is one of the most successful battle-tested robots in the world. It performs bomb disposal and other dangerous missions for troops and first responders. More than 4,500 units are currently on station in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was one of the first robots to enter the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant after the 2011 tsunami. The other nominees were Kiva Systems' autonomous warehouse robots and the Jason submersible from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Finally, BigDog was recognized in the Research category. This dynamically stable quadruped robot was created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics. It can traverse difficult terrain and run at 4 miles an hour while carrying 340 pounds and climbing a 35-degree incline. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has sponsored its development as a robotic pack mule to accompany soldiers in terrain too tough for conventional vehicles. Other nominees were Willow Garage's two-armed PR2 mobile robot and NASA's Robonaut.
TurtleBot 2 Available For Preorder
What's new with Turtlebot 2.0?
Improved Performance
The new and improved Turtlebot includes a factory calibrated gyro with far better performance at low rotation speeds and encoders with 1000x better resolution. The result is a low-cost mobile robot with impressive position and velocity feedback to enhance your autonomy, navigation and mapping.
Power-ups!
The new Turtlebot has many new power features to improve user experience. We’ve included a 19V laptop power output to keep your laptop charged longer, we’ve added more user power connectors to power more sensors, and we’ve even added an extended life battery upgrade to maximize your uptime.
Coming Soon - A docking station is in the works to enable auto-charge and 24/7 autonomy!
Now Shipping Worldwide
One of the biggest limitations of the old Turtlebot was that it was not RoHS compliant, meaning that we were unable to ship to certain countries. We are very pleased to announce that the new TurtleBot is 100% RoHS compliant and ready to ship worldwide. Now Turtlebot’s only language barrier is a binary serial protocol.
Available at Clearpath Robotics for $1,149.00 and shipping December 1st.
A Robotic Wheelchair Able To Climb Steps
A demo of Chiba Institute of Technology's wheel chair concept:
"If a sensor detects a step, the robot calculates whether it can lift that leg. It can't raise its wheels right away, so the steering system at the rear makes preparatory motions to gain stability. When the wheels can be raised stably, the robot lifts its legs."
Distribution Centers: An Emerging Robotics Frontier
This article originated as a profile of one company as they began to robotically augment distribution centers. But, as I gathered information, the story has morphed into a review of why Kiva Systems' innovative methods - the goods-to-man methodology - is far superior to other older styles of fulfillment.
Introductory To The Element Robotics Development Platform
Fast robotics development using the Element Robotics Development Platform and the .NET framework.
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