One of the most hazardous of underwater jobs is diving shipwrecks. Divers explore shipwrecks to retrieve objects of historical significance or to help in recovery efforts. The work is so hazardous that much of it is carried out by unmanned robots. The typical underwater robot uses propellers to get around, but that form of propulsion […]
Some shipwrecks are too costly or dangerous for humans to explore, but many underwater robots are too disruptive and unwieldy to serve as substitutes. The Tallinn Institute of Technology’s new U-CAT mapping robot solves that dilemma by imitating one of the ocean’s more graceful creatures: the sea turtle. The small machine uses flippers to get around instead of propellers, preventing it from kicking up silt (which would obscure its camera) and letting it turn on a dime. It’s also autonomous, which helps it venture deep into a wreck without worrying about cables. It’s sure to have a big impact on underwater archaeology, and you can see it in person if you swing by the London Science Museum between November 28th and December 1st. However, It will eventually map shipwrecks in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas as part of the EU’s ARROWS Project, providing more detail than any diver could manage.
[Image credit: Tallin University of Technology, Flickr]
Via: Gizmag
When it comes to flying creations, inspiration is often gathered from a common pool of creatures: birds, insects, maybe a dragon or two. Researchers at New York University went a more unconventional route, and designed a flying robot based on, of all things, a jellyfish. The robot doesn’t need water to pull off its gravity-defying […]
Creating a humanoid robot that can walk over all kinds of junk, like a parent traversing a child’s LEGO explosion of a room, is no easy task. The idea is the same for both the parent and the robot. No matter what you step on, stay upright.
So check out this video of The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition’s Atlas humanoid robot trying to navigate a bunch of wood and rope, because researchers didn’t clean their room. Naturally, the robot struggles to stay upright. Damn kids! But don’t worry, it was wearing a safety harness, which kept it from breaking a hip.
The video is fascinating and kinda funny as the robot takes its nervous steps and eventually loses it. At least robots don’t feel pain. Yet.
[via I Programmer via Geekologie]
In what some are calling the first robot suicide (issues of sentience aside), a Roomba reportedly activated itself in an Austrian home and rolled itself over to a hot stove top, where it pushed a cooking pot off the surface and proceeded to wheel around the hot area before eventually melting to the surface and […]
It’s always nice to have a little buddy around that’s trained to do what you want it to. Some of us get dogs or other furry creatures, but a start-up called Curio is hoping there’s a good chunk of folks who would like to have a robotic companion, too. You see, Curio is a cute little bot platform filled with a pair of motors that move its mouth and head, and has a small LCD screen that serves as its face. The toy clips to any smartphone or tablet running the associated app, which in turn allows users to set its facial expression, determine its movements and even tell it what to say.
While the app will come with a bunch of pre-set actions, expressions and sounds, its makers are also working up a programming portion of the app, so tinkerers can create their own custom Curio mods. This programming interface is a series of parallel timelines that allow you to chronologically lay out different facial expressions, movements and audio simply by dragging and dropping them where you like. And Curio’s built to be physically customized, too. Company founder Mike Kneupfel thinks that his bots can take advantage of the 3D printing craze by letting folks make their own tails, ears, and other accessories that clip onto Curio. He tells us that he aims to put a bunch of accessory blueprints on MakerBot’s Thingiverse to make it easy for folks to print stuff out, but he’s hoping that users will get creative and design their own as well.
Robotic toys aren’t that uncommon on the market today. Some of them are more like engineering projects than toy kits, but others are designed for people that just want to play. Toy manufacturer WowWee has announced a new robot aimed at kids looking for a simple robot to play with. The robot is called RoboMe […]
If you hang around here much, you know we love our LEGO, and we also have an affinity for DIY robotics. A company called Atoms has announced its modular robotics building kits are now available to purchase. You can buy these kits as individual blocks serving different purposes such as Bluetooth connectivity and more. The most interesting products offered are a couple of robot kits that come with everything you need to build complete ‘bots.
Atoms calls these two kits Quarks, specifically they are the Bunsen set and the Pascal set. Bunsen is the blue robot with the two green wheels. The kit sells for $79.99 and includes a light sensor, a control knob, a battery, a splitter, a motor, and an audio recorder. The robot kit is designed to be buildable by children ages six and up as well as adults. The kit also includes required wires and six challenge cards.
The other kit is Pascal, a smartphone-controlled, Wall-E-like little yellow robot with tank treads on each side. This kit includes a number of pieces such as a light sensor, Bluetooth, a pair of medium motors, and more. The Pascal kit costs $119.
One of the coolest things about Atoms is that they’re designed to snap together not just with other Atoms blocks, but with LEGO bricks.
If you order now, delivery is estimated by December 20 so your kids could still have a robotic Christmas.
Earlier this month, comedian Rob Delaney caught attention after tweeting an image of a man performing an, shall we say, invasive exam on a robotic butt positioned in front of a large monitor displaying a virtual doctor’s examination room. The tweet provided no details about the image, and not being content with making ample backside […]
iRobot has introduced its latest Roomba vacuum, the Roomba 800 Series. With this latest iteration of the cordless, self-operating vacuum, the company has elected to get rid of bristles in favor of AeroForce technology, which is said to pick up 50-percent more dirt and other trappings than previous Roomba models. There are two rotors in […]
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