Unmanned Systems Markets: Present & Future
Overall, the reports that I surveyed were upbeat, predicting exponential growth for all unmanned vehicles.
MIT Cheetah Robot Lands the Running Jump
In a leap for robotic development, the MIT researchers who built a robotic cheetah have now trained it to see and jump over hurdles as it runs - making this the first four-legged robot to run and jump over obstacles autonomously...
A Rosy View of Smart Buildings
Smart buildings are often moving the wrong way, with more central "cloud-based" decision making, and less autonomy.
Upcoming Tradeshow, Conference & Exhibition Summary - June, July, August 2015
Here is a summary of what Tradeshows, Conferences & Exhibitions to look forward to in the coming months.
DARPA's Self-guided Bullets
"True to DARPAs mission, EXACTO has demonstrated what was once thought impossible: the continuous guidance of a small-caliber bullet to target," said Jerome Dunn, DARPA program manager.
CyPhy LVL 1 Drone
From CyPhy LVL 1 Drone Kickstarter:
Our drone never tilts, allowing it to snap perfect pictures and stable video every time. By eliminating tilting, the drone handles intuitively, with an unrivaled out-of-the-box experience.
Thanks to its special shape, our LVL 1 simplifies aerial photography. There’s no complex, expensive stabilization mount or vulnerable camera. You’ll take stunning pictures with ease.
CyPhy Works, founded by iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner, has been making tethered drones for industrial application. These drones were designed to fly 24/7 in all types of wind and weather.
While Dr. Kenneth Sebesta was optimizing our drones’ hovering, he came up with a breakthrough. He realized that with just the right twist angle of the arms and a precise amount of added dihedral — plus a lot more fancy math — we could achieve level flight for the first time on a multi-rotor drone... $495 ( Kickstarter )
18,000+ Students Bring Their Custom-Built Robots to the Largest Sport for the Mind™ Showdown, the 2015 FIRST® Championship
Innovative 3D Scanner Relies On Manta Camera From Allied Vision
8tree's portable 3D scanner enables easy, fast surface inspection in the automotive and aerospace industries. A Manta digital camera from Allied Vision contributes to rapid and accurate measurement.
Fetch Robotics' Fetch & Freight
From Fetch Robotics (the core team from Unbounded Robotics/all former employees of Willow Garage):
The Fetch Robotics’ system is comprised of a mobile base (called Freight) and an advanced mobile manipulator (called Fetch). Fetch and Freight can also use a charging dock for autonomous continuous operations; allowing the robots to charge when needed and then continue on with their tasks. In addition, the system includes accompanying software to support the robots and integrate with the warehouse environment. Both robots are built upon the open source robot operating system, ROS.
Fetch is an advanced mobile manipulator, including features such as:
Telescoping spine with variable height from 1.09 to 1.491 meters
Capacity to lift approximately 6 kgs.
3D RGB Depth Sensor
Back-Drivable 7DOF Arm
Modular Gripper Interface
Head Expansion Mount Points
Pan-Tilt Head
Differential Drive
ROS-Enabled
Freight is a modular base, used separately or in conjunction with Fetch. Features include:
Base Expansion Mount Points
Payload support of approximately 68 kgs.
2D Laser Scanner
Stereo Speaker
Computer Access Panel
Run-Stop
ROS-Enabled
( full press release )
A Driving Force of the Future: Self-Driving Goes Green
With the inevitable progression and inclusion of self-driving cars, we will see an increase of road safety, oil efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Planting Trees With Drones
From The Independent:
A drone start-up is going to counter industrial scale deforestation using industrial scale reforestation.
BioCarbon Engineering wants to use drones for good, using the technology to seed up to one billion trees a year, all without having to set foot on the ground... ( cont'd ) ( projects website )
NHL Goal Celebration Hack With A Hue Light Show And Real Time Machine Learning
From François Maillet:
In Montréal this time of year, the city literally stops and everyone starts talking, thinking and dreaming about a single thing: the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Even most of those who don’t normally care the least bit about hockey transform into die hard fans of theMontréal Canadiens, or the Habs like we also call them.
Below is a Youtube clip of the epic goal celebration hack in action. In a single sentence, I trained a machine learning model to detect in real-time that a goal was just scored by the Habs based on the live audio feed of a game and to trigger a light show using Philips hues in my living room... ( full article )
AGROBOT: Strawberry Harvesters
From AGROBOT:
AGB® manages a set of robotic manipulators able to locate and identify your strawberries, selecting them based on their size and degree of ripeness.
This system analyzes your fruit one by one, and it is responsible for ordering cutting movements that guarantee accuracy, smoothness, and sensitivity in the strawberry treatment. The fruit, picked with the strictest hygiene conditions, is driven by our FlexConveyor System to the packaging area. Select the ripeness you would pick up.
AGvision ® is an artificial vision system that identifies your fruit with maximum accuracy and consistency. Its advanced technology, implement in real time a protocol for morphological and color analysis which systematically return the ripeness of the fruit, discriminating exclusively those strawberries which meets the quality standards previously set by the farmer... ( more details )
Rethinks New Robot: Sawyer
From Rethink:
Introducing Sawyer – the revolutionary new high performance collaborative robot designed to execute machine tending, circuit board testing and other precise tasks that are impractical to automate with industrial robots.
Smaller Footprint, Longer Reach
Smaller and lighter weight than Baxter, and with 7 DOF and a 1026 mm reach, Sawyer can maneuver into the tight spaces and varied alignments of work cells designed for humans.
International Availability
With a base price of $29,000, Sawyer will initially be available in North America, Europe, China and Japan, with limited availability beginning in mid-2015.
Intera 3
Like Baxter, Sawyer is powered by the industry’s best and most intuitive software platform, Intera. It features the same iconic “face” screen (with a refreshed and even more expressive design) that helps it communicate with co-workers, along with the train-by-demonstration user interface that revolutionized how robots can be deployed on factory floors. Sawyer runs on the same version of Intera as Baxter, and will continue to evolve and improve with regular upgrades... (more details) (more about Intera software)
Star Wars' BB-8
From the new Star Wars:
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Featured Product
ATI Industrial Automation - Manual Tool Changers
Simpler, stronger, and more precise. ATI Industrial Automation has developed a series of Manual Tool Changers that provides a cost-effective solution for quickly changing tools by hand. They feature a unique design that combines high strength, excellent repeatability, and a patent-pending screw-cam locking mechanism with multiple fail-safe features, which resists vibration and prevents loosening. These robust and compact Manual Tool Changers can handle payloads up to 80 pounds (36 kg) and pass pneumatics and electrical signals.
