The Art of Building a Robot

Sensors and gripper arms can simply be attached and removed as needed. You dont even have to be a specialist to quickly and easily replace a defective part, which makes the robots extremely flexible and economical to operate.

MIT's Modular Robotic Chain Is Whatever You Want It to Be

Evan Ackerman for IEEE Spectrum:  As sensors, computers, actuators, and batteries decrease in size and increase in efficiency, it becomes possible to make robots much smaller without sacrificing a whole lot of capability. There’s a lower limit on usefulness, however, if you’re making a robot that needs to interact with humans or human-scale objects. You can continue to leverage shrinking components if you make robots that are modular: in other words, big robots that are made up of lots of little robots. In some ways, it’s more complicated to do this, because if one robot is complicated, robots tend to be complicated. If you can get all of the communication and coordination figured out, though, a modular system offers tons of advantages: robots that come in any size you want, any configuration you want, and that are exceptionally easy to repair and reconfigure on the fly. MIT’s ChainFORM is an interesting take on this idea: it’s an evolution of last year’s LineFORM multifunctional snake robot that introduces modularity to the system, letting you tear of a strip of exactly how much robot you need, and then reconfigure it to do all kinds of things.   Cont'd...

RENCO Modular Rotary Encoders Ideal for Mobile Robots

The RENCO encoders slim and lightweight design allows motor designers more flexibility, especially in these applications where space and weight is critical.

Echoing Government's Productivity 4.0, IoT Automation Boosts Taiwan's Competitiveness

Facing challenges of labor shortages and aging labor forces, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs is implementing "Productivity 4.0" to stimulate economic growth and upgrade industries.

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Featured Product

The maxon IDX Compact Drive with Integrated Positioning Controller

The maxon IDX Compact Drive with Integrated Positioning Controller

The compact brushless EC-i motor combined with an EPOS4 positioning controller delivers a highly dynamic, powerful drive package with field-oriented control (FOC), high efficiency, and maintenance-free components in a high-quality industrial housing. The maxon IDX drives are suitable for use across the entire speed range (from standstill to maximum speed) and have an extremely high overload capability. Together with a positioning controller, the integrated sensor (single turn) enables absolute positioning.