The only thing cooler than using a huge robot arm to sculpt? Using a huge robot arm to sculpt with liquid hot metal. Joris Laarman Studio‘s prototype software instructs a robotic arm to recreate 3D models in midair, using molten metals of all kinds. It looks as cool as it sounds.
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Do you remember the robotic arm that Tony Stark has in the Iron Man movies? Sure, it is unable to talk back, but in its silent movement, it was still capable of conveying a certain sense of “emotion”, so to speak. Don’t you wish that you too, had some sort of robotic arm at your disposal to be able to help you out in some household chores? What you see above would be a video of such an arm, where it remains in the prototype stage while being made out from 3D printed parts, with the help of an Arduino chipset as well as Adafruit analog feedback servos.
This prototype trainable robotic arm gained its inspiration from the Baxter robot, where it can be specially trained to move with your own hands. The moment the train button is pressed, you will be able to move the arm and gripper as required, while the Arduino will store the positions in the EEPROM. Once that is done, the arm will replay the motion as required. Not exactly the kind of self-aware robotic arm that we would have liked to own, but at least it is a start in the right direction for the average home user, no?
Trainable Robotic Arm Comprises Of 3D Printed Parts original content from Ubergizmo. 
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We like to tell ourselves that learning by doing is the best strategy for improving our skills, but we seldom apply that philosophy to our robots; with certain exceptions, they’re just supposed to know what to do from the start. Researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt disagree and have developed algorithms proving that robot arms just need practice, practice, practice to learn complex activities. After some literal hand-holding with a human to understand the basics of a ping-pong swing, a TUD robot can gradually abstract those motions and return the ball in situations beyond the initial example. The technique is effective enough that the test arm took a mere hour of practice to successfully bounce back 88 percent of shots and compete with a human. That’s certainly better than most of us fared after our first game. If all goes well, the science could lead to robots of all kinds that need only a small foundation of code to accomplish a lot. Just hope that the inevitable struggle between humans and robots isn’t settled with a ping-pong match… it might end badly.
German robot arm learns ping-pong as it plays humans, might rival its masters originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 07:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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First they invaded our factories, and now it’s our hotel rooms. Is nowhere safe from the robots? In truth, Ibis’ upcoming Sleep Art project is very slick, even if it smacks of robot voyeurism. Ibis hotels in Berlin, London and Paris will let 40 successful applicants sleep on beds that each have 80 sensors translating movements, sound and temperature into truly unique acrylic paintings by robotic arms connected through WiFi. You don’t have to worry that the machines are literally watching you sleep — there’s no cameras or other visual records of the night’s tossing and turning, apart from the abstract lines on the canvas. All the same, if you succeed in landing a stay in one of the Sleep Art hotel rooms between October 13th and November 23rd, you’re a brave person. We all know how this ends.
Ibis hotels to have robots paint art while they track your sleep: no, that’s not creepy at all (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 04:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It looks as though the humble TV remote control would be able to do more than help you surf through the hundreds of available channels, thanks to this Bluetooth-enabled robotic arm. Built by Darren for a high school project, it does not matter if your TV remote control is not one of those snazzy touchscreen models with Bluetooth-connectivity built in, as it will also play nice over a standard issue TV remote thanks to IR (infrared) capability.
Of course, if you happen to own a smartphone that has Bluetooth support, why not? It ought to work seamlessly with the right kind of software installed on your handset. A robotic arm is always far safer to conduct experiments from afar, especially the dangerous ones that have a higher risk of combusting right in front of your face. Just don’t get fused to the robotic arm in the event of an accident ala Dr. Octopus, although you would look pretty weird with this stuck to some part of your body.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: LEGO robotic arm powered by NXT, ArmAssist uses video games used to heal stroke victims,
That’s RUTH. In the end, she really amounts to a big robot arm with six joints, but Ford clearly has a soft spot for the faceless employee. First utilized in Europe, the Robotized Unit for Tactility and Haptics is currently at work helping to tweak the interiors of the company’s 2013 Fusions, turning data collected from customers across the world into the hard to define concept of “quality,” touching the trim, pushing buttons and turning knobs in the interior of the vehicle, in order to help provide what Ford says is, “the same type of quality they might feel if they were to buy a high-end luxury car.” The version of the arm dubbed Ruth 2.0 is currently being used by Ford alone in North America, and the company has extended her quality checking to include seat comfort in the vehicles. Check out a video of the long arm of the car company after the break.
Continue reading Ford wants you to meet its touchy, feely interior quality robot, RUTH 2.0
Filed under: Robots, Transportation
Ford wants you to meet its touchy, feely interior quality robot, RUTH 2.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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