Sweet, More J-Robots! …Oh. Industrial Robots?
Okay, today will not be heroic rescue & recovery robots, nor life-changing assistive robots for the disabled and elderly. No, today we’re talking Japan’s industrial robots, and through profound statistics, talk of money, and wildly general projections for the future, we’re going to spice up this dry robot salad.
Now, industrial robots are basically super-strong, super-precise, fantastically dexterous multi-jointed arms that do pretty much …
Okay, so what’s an assistive robot?
Well, they’re a lot more cool and useful and tech than it might sound. Think of them more like… social robots, or maybe cybernetic enhancements, or, some years down the road, but not too many, complete physical entities capable of semi-autonomously moving about and taking action in everyday life on behalf of their owner.
As tools, assistive robots passively or actively bridge the gap between what we might refer to as “normal” everyday …
Now that our Insert Coin: New Challengers contestants had duked it out and the judges have made their decision, we have a winner: Ziphius. Not only did the bot win $20,000 thanks to deliberation by our judges, but it came home with our $5,000 reader’s choice prize too. Victorious and $25,000 richer, the brains behind the aquatic drone joined us backstage to chat about their project. For the full interview, check out our video after the break.
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Filed under: Robots
Marc Raibert, president and chief robot lover of Boston Dynamics (of AlphaDog, BigDog and Pet-Proto fame), joined us on the Expand stage to discuss the present state and future of robotics. Raibert wound his way backstage and sat down with us to talk about the importance of biology’s influences on the creation of robots and the possibility of his firm developing consumer bots. Hit the jump to catch the video interview.
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Filed under: Robots
Those looking to tinker with humanoid robots aren’t exactly lacking for options these days, but Cognitive Spring is taking a slightly different approach than most with its Arduino-based cSpring bipedal robot — one of the semifinalists in the Insert Coin competition here at Expand. Rather than offering a readymade robot like Nao that largely makes software the focus of user customization, cSpring is designed to be highly customizable (and open source) on both the hardware and software fronts. Indeed, the company is hoping to encourage such development by rewarding crowd-sourced work with what it calls “paid achievements.”
As for the robot itself, it’s currently designed to work with an 11-inch MacBook Air that conveniently doubles as its torso, and it relies on a PrimeSense motion sensor to monitor its surroundings. One of the real selling points for potential developers, though, are the array of servos that power the robot’s legs, which can operate simultaneously and provide some 40 pounds of lift apiece. Those also give the robot a decent range of movement, although it hasn’t yet learned to fully walk (that’s one area the company suggests could be expanded upon by others).
Gallery: cSpring robot hands-on
Filed under: Robots
Source: Cognitive Spring
See that guy? He’s for real. He’s also from Pittsburgh. A team of wizards from Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center is presently building a new “human-scale” robot in order to compete in DARPA‘s Robotics Challenge. Part of its charm revolves around the rubberized tracks on its feet as well as on the extremities of each of its four limbs — not surprisingly, these are engineered to help it maneuver in some pretty sticky situations.
According to the institution, it’ll move much link a tank, but it’ll also be able to chug along on the treads of just two limbs when needed, such as when it must use one or more limbs to open a valve, or to operate power tools. Oh, and in case you’re curious, CMU has affirmed that it’ll “be able to perform complex, physically challenging tasks through supervised autonomy,” which sounds precisely like the kind of vague description an ill-willed robot would explain to its master before completely taking over his / her life. Just sayin’.
Filed under: Robots
Via: Technabob, Geekosystem
Source: Carnegie Mellon
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are working on a rescue robot that can take on both humanoid and tank forms like a Transformer. No word on whether it is a Decepticon or an Autobot. It’s called CHIMP (CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform) and it can work like a human (or monkey) when it needs to climb a ladder and such. But if the terrain gets rough, it can drop onto all fours, switch on its motorized treads, and become a tank.
In that form CHIMP can traverse disaster areas and seek out survivors. The robot is being developed by CMU for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The goal of the Robotics Challenge is to take disaster response robots to the next level, making them capable of doing just about anything a human can do.
As part of the challenge, robots must be able to do everything from driving across rubble, to climbing a ladder, to breaking through concrete, to repairing a leaking pipe.
The key to this is flexibility. Sometimes two legs are better, other times four is what you need. I can’t wait to see where this goes. Thankfully, it will be some time yet before these flexible bots enslave us.
[via Geekosystem]
All of Japan took a few moments Monday to pay respect to the losses suffered in the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster of March 11, 2011. As human beings we move forward, and we work to find the good even in terrible situations. In that spirit, this piece is not a memorial, but hopefully a brief insight into how a terrible natural disaster has invigorated Japan’s robotics industry and brought to light a problem affecting all industrialized societies.
In the first hours and days, when it …
A while back DARPA issued a challenge to researchers and educational institutions to help construct a robot that could meet a series of specific tasks. The competition had a prize of $2 million and was called the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The goal of the challenge was to have entrants build robots that have four limbs and possessed strength along the lines of a human.
One caveat for the program was that the robot had to have the dexterity needed to be able to climb ladders and use tools. Carnegie Mellon University is one of the educational institutions that participated in the challenge. The robot created by the University is called the CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform or CHIMP.
The robot has an interesting motivation system using triple-jointed limbs that are able to move on tank treads over roads and rough ground. The robot is also able to lift itself up and travel using two of the tracks while using claw-like manipulator arms to climb ladders, move debris, or turn a steering wheel. DARPA is seeking robots it would be able to enter facilities during serious accidents, such as the accident that occurred at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
Robots that enter the competition also have to be able to operate without a power line or a wired connection. CHIMP uses onboard processing power for balance, collision avoidance, and navigation. The design was accepted by DARPA into the top group of Robotics Challenge entries. The first round of tests for this group of robots, including the CHIMP will begin in June. The first challenges are purely based on software. Physical task challenges will happen in December.
[via The Register]
Carnegie Mellon University builds CHIMP for DARPA Robotics Challenge is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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A few months back, DARPA announced their Robotics Challenge, and what you see here is definitely one of the contenders, with the CHIMP robot built by the team over at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center. CHIMP stands for CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform, and it comes with tank-like treads on its arms and legs that helps it traverse across bumpy terrain, while sporting legged motion capability so that it can stand up when necessary. Sort of like a Transformers-inspired creation, this.
This is definitely an unusual approach where locomotion is concerned, and it should allow the CHIMP robot to get around whatever obstacles it faces. We do hope that give it a decade or two, we will soon see flying robots that are far more autonomous than what we have today, helping out the military in ways that were once imagined and dismissed as fantasy. The CHIMP is one of the cooler designs out so far, and we cannot wait to see what other designs are thought up for the rest of the Robotics Challenge.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Robot Octopus Developed By Army, Human Rights Watch hopes to ban the creation of autonomous weapons,
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