Forbes: The End of Chinese Manufacturing and Rebirth of U.S. Industry
Forbes article on China's manufacturing bubble, the impact of robotics and 3d printing, and the possibility of a resurgence in US manufacturing.
IEEE Spectrum Tours iRobot's Museum Of Robots
Nancy Dussault Smith, vice president of marketing communications at iRobot, gave IEEE Spectrum a 25 minute tour of the iRobot museum and all the robots and prototypes from the companies past.
Auto Pan-Tilt Camera System For Tracking Fast Moving Objects
A team at the University of Japan have developed a camera system for tracking fast moving objects automatically and accurately without motion prediction. The example video shown on their website demonstrates the camera tracking a ping pong game. Even a high-speed object like a bouncing pingpong ball in play can be tracked at the center due to a high-speed optical gaze controller Saccade Mirror and a 1000-fps high-speed vision. The Saccade Mirror controls a camera's gazing direction not by moving the camera itself but by rotating two-axis small galvanometer mirrors. It takes no more than 3.5 ms even if it controls the gaze by 60 deg, the widest angle, for both pan and tilt. The newest prototype system accesses a Full HD image quality for an actual broadcasting service.
XBee Customizable Handheld Controller
Quantum Robotics is looking for funding on Kickstarter for two XBee based controller. They already reached their goal of $7,000 but you can still contribute and get a first run controller.
Q4 Controller
32 Channels
4 Gimbals Joysticks (Horizontal, Vertical, & Push-button control)
4 (10K Ohm Linear) Potentiometer Dial Controls
10 Push-buttons
6 Toggle Switch Controls
1 Power On/Off Toggle
Micro SD Card Slot
2x20 Serial LCD
Power requirements: 6-9 VDC (2S 500mAh Lipo or 9V battery
Q2 Controller
24 Channels
2 RC Gimbals (Horizontal & Vertical control)
4 (10K Ohm Linear) Potentiometer Dial Controls
10 Push-buttons
6 Toggle Switch Controls
1 Power On/Off Toggle
Micro SD Card Slot
2x20 Serial LCD
Power requirements: 6-9 VDC (2S 500mAh Lipo or 9V battery)
KUKAprc: Parametric Robot Control for Visual Programming Language Grasshopper
The International Association for Robots in Architecture has released an update to it's Grasshopper plugin: KUKA:prc.
Grasshopper is visual programming language built on top of the Rhino3D modeler. Grasshopper can be used to generate complex 3d structures procedurally by chaining together operations using its node-based IDE.
KUKA:prc enables you to program industrial robots directly out of the parametric modeling environment, including a full kinematic simulation of the robot. The generated files can be executed at the KUKA robot, without requiring any additional software. The new release includes several preset profiles existing KUKA robots and is free (at least for the time being) to download and test here.
Automated Pallet Tracking in Food & Beverage Logistics
Without proper pallet tracking, manufacturers run the risk of costly product recalls, as well as negative impact on brand image. Often entire batches of affected product must be recalled due to insufficient pallet identification, even when errors exist for only a portion of a given shipment.
Robots in the Deep
The oceans are unfathomable, dark and dangerous; yet researchers are building undersea robots that can find their way in the mysterious deep. Scientists now have a variety of research and work vehicles to explore where no man has gone before.
Robotmaster software and Kuka Robots make a significant impact at Automatica 2012
Concerns of robots maintaining tolerances and producing finish quality parts were put to rest by the live machining done at both booths.
Pantomation
An old video recently surfaced demonstrating Pantomation, a tracking system built in 1977. The system was built with some variation of the PDP and could track body movement by isolating objects held by performers and was used to drive music or live performances. Cool early stuff.
Cannes Light Show Performed By KMel Robotics
A troupe of 16 quadrotors (flying robots) dance to and manipulate sound and light at the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase 2012.
The Complete ROSCon 2012 Presentation Videos
Willow Garage posted these videos of all the presentations at this years ROSCon and we thought we'd compile ths list for you here. 11+ hours of great content.
MPU-9150 Nine-axis MotionTracking device
The MPU-9150 is a System in Package (SiP) that combines two chips: the MPU-6050, which contains a 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, and an onboard Digital Motion Processor™ (DMP™) capable of processing complex 9-axis MotionFusion algorithms; and the AK8975, a 3-axis digital compass. The part’s integrated 9-axis MotionFusion algorithms access all internal sensors to gather a full set of sensor data.
For precision tracking of both fast and slow motions, the parts feature a user-programmable gyro full-scale range of ±250, ±500, ±1000, and ±2000°/sec (dps), a user-programmable accelerometer full-scale range of ±2g, ±4g, ±8g, and ±16g, and compass with a full scale range of ±1200µT.
Designworld has a video from InvenSense's CES 2012 booth demonstrating the MPU-9150.
The DIYDrones post has additional info and comments.
Official product site.
Picking Robotics Stocks Is Complicated: Some Are A Waste Of Time
If you believe that the robotics industry is ready for you to invest in, you wouldn't purchase either Boeing or John Deere -- they aren't representative of the industry and their stocks move to the beat of a different drummer than robotics. Instead, you would pick from a list of pure play robotic stocks (if such a list existed).
What will you say to an Intelligent Robot?
The advances in genetics, brain research, artificial intelligence, bionics and nanotechnology are converging to accomplish the goal of overcoming human limitations and create higher forms of artificial intelligent life. By 2035, the robotics industry could rival the automobile and computer industries in both sales and jobs.
A Guide For Small Assembly Robots In Upstream Packaging Processes
The first step in automating a process with a robot is to determine whether the tasks to be performed will require a four-axis SCARA or six-axis articulated robot, and what type and size of end effector, or end-of-arm tooling (EOAT), is needed.
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Featured Product
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Robotics and Automation - Featured Company
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