Robot Jumps In An Explosive Manner
Posted in: Today's Chili
What you see above is not a shot of some sort of alien life form that NASA scientists have managed to capture and cultivate over the years, but rather, it is a three-legged robot that will rely on its “exploding” body in order to perform something most of us take for granted – jump. It would not be too far off the mark to say that this is inspired by facehuggers of the Alien franchise. This rubbery robot would be able to “walk” as one pumps air through it, but if you want it to jump, just set off explosions inside its body.
The brainchild of a certain George Whitesides from Harvard University alongside that of his colleagues, this three-legged robot will come lined with tubes that are filled with a mixture of methane and oxygen. An electrical spark is all it takes to ignite the gases, where the combustion reaction would generate bursts of pressure which helps propel the robot aloft. In fact, they might as well call this the Flea, as it can jump more than 30 times its height with all three legs activated simultaneously.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Talking Robot Robovie Learning Human Interactions From School Children, Robot Inspired By Moth Tracks Down Smells, 
Nature had always proven to be quite the inspiration for science over the ages. How else did you think that man learned how to fly, wings made out of wax notwithstanding? Well, a group of researchers have managed to come up with a tiny two-wheeled robot that will study just how the insect is capable of tracking down smells. In the process, these researchers intend to understand the scent-tracking behavior of a silkmoth (aka Bombyx mori), which eventually could assist scientists in developing robots which are able to sense environmental spills as well as leaks simply through the sense of smell.
If you happen to be at Macworld/iWorld 2013 which is happening at San Francisco, surely one of the “stars” on parade there would be the Double, which is basically a telepresence robot which relies on an iPad to function as its eyes and ears. The Double hails from Double Robotics of Sunnyvale, where it will rely on a 2nd or 3rd generation iPad (which you will need to provide yourself, of course) that has been mounted on top of a slim pole which itself is attached to another gizmo at the bottom, namely motorized wheels that perform the self-balancing act brilliantly.
All right, so the bionic man that will be featured on a Channel 4 documentary that is titled, “How to Build a Bionic Man” might not be worth all of six million dollars, but it will show off the latest in the realm of artificial limbs, organs, and yes, even artificial blood by building a 6-foot tall android. The program is hosted by Dr. Bertolt Meyer, a social psychologist from Switzerland, who currently sports an iLimb Ultra as he was born sans a left arm. This prosthetic hand from Touch Bionics costs around $48,000, just in case you were wondering.
Kids who grew up without a sibling or relative somewhere in their age range would have to figure out different ways to interact with others as he or she grows up, and from what I have read so far and watched in movies and cartoons, these lonely kids tend to have imaginary friends, and sometimes they are of the otherworldly kind (brrr!). Well, here is a robot that might just keep your kid entertained if it were to be further researched and developed for the masses – researchers over at the Flanders’ Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC) in Belgium have managed to develop the first robot of its kind to play badminton.
The robot is certainly a useful tool for modern day humanity, as it is ideal for repetitive tasks, and robots do not complain about not getting enough rest and neither do they picket and form a union to ask for higher wages. Well, here is a robot that might just take over jobs in the cottage industry of milking cows, although it might still take a fair amount of time before most farmers and those in the milking industry would take the plunge. According to Kevin Kueker, a third generation dairy farmer, “It’s an automated milking system or robotic milking. Our older facility was getting to the point where something had to be done either spend a lot of money to fix it up or build something new.” Kevin himself moved to robotic milking approximately a year ago.
