Hasta La Gadget!

Robots do come in pretty handy if they are programmed in the right manner and are headed in the correct direction of course, such as the SkySweeper which is 3D printed and intends to help lower the cost of inspecting power lines, while there is also a shark tracking robot that will do its bit to help scientists with a heart for the environment to keep track of the world’s dwindling population of sharks. Well, here we are with yet another interesting robot from researchers who have invented it, being a robot arm system which is capable of reaching deep into the brain so that it can do away with fatal clots through the use of steerable needles.

This is a spanking new image-guided surgical system that is currently being worked on by Vanderbilt University, where it employs steerable needles that are approximately the same size as those used for biopsies, penetrating the brain with minimal damage while helping suction away the blood clot which is within. Thanks to researcher Robert J Webster’s design, it is capable of being steered in different directions without messing around with one’s brain too much – as long as the surgeon controlling it has steady hands and knows what he is doing.

Robot Treats Brain Clots Using Steerable Needles original content from Ubergizmo.

For those who have been following the news, you might recall that there was a huge fuss over how Edward Snowden, a former NSA system administrator, blew the whistle on the organization’s PRISM program which basically allowed the US government to spy on its own people. Instead of attempting to reassure the public that this was in their best interest, the program was defended and even called “lawful”, and now NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander has revealed future plans on how to prevent such leaks from occurring again. (more…)

NSA Director Wants To Replace Employees With Machines original content from Ubergizmo.

3D printing technology has certainly come a long, long way, and there are even 3D printed rifles that take approximately 14 shots before it breaks, not to mention the Liberator 3D printed gun which has been successfully smuggled into the Israeli parliament before. Well, here is yet another benefit of 3D printing – by churning out a robot which is small and agile enough to inspect power lines without involving additional cost – the SkySweeper.

Since most developed countries do tend to have plenty of utility lines all over the place, inspecting them is not a job for the faint-hearted as well as impatient. Thanks to a bunch of engineers from the University of California, San Diego, they have managed to develop the SkySweeper, a 3D-printed V-shaped robot which could cost under $1,000 a pop if manufactured on a large scale basis. It will be able to inch its way along a cable in a manner that is something like that of a caterpillar, where one arm would pull it, and then lock into place, before the next arm does the same action, as depicted in the video above. Does this mean the local municipal council has less work to do? Perhaps, but they will need someone to maintain and inspect those robots instead!

SkySweeper 3D Printed Robot Inspects Power Lines Without Breaking The Bank original content from Ubergizmo.

We’re a few days late in wishing the Mars Curiosity Rover a happy birthday – it landed on the Red Planet on August 5th one year ago – so to make up for it we present Florence Tan, the team lead for the rover’s on-board chemistry lab, talking about how they transmitted commands to the rover so it could play “Happy Birthday” to itself.

It is at once one of the most miraculous things you’ll see all week and, in a way, the saddest. The rover sings using a set of vibrating plates designed to move soil samples through the chemistry module. While most of the signals are more “beep boop” than bebop, the module can also play notes.

Thus one of our species’ crowning achievements – a rover that is the very avatar of all of our best and most far-reaching efforts – sang a 120-year-old folk song into the arid plains of Mars. The fact that this little robot will probably never make it back home and is completely alone is a fascinating study in solitude but, what’s more important, that it is able to sing to itself by reacting to commands sent from Earth is stunning. We are, in essence, on Mars with the little rover and that’s probably the best birthday present we could get.

In 1947, the Tucker Car Corporation opened shop at the Dodge Chicago Plant, the one-time world’s largest building located on the city’s southwest side, a stone’s throw from Midway Airport. Half a decade before, construction workers lovingly nicknamed the site “Hitler’s Headache,” a title it earned for being the birthplace of most of the engines for World War II’s B-29 bombers. After Tucker’s notoriously brief tenure, Ford took over, again devoting the massive structure to the construction of military aircraft, this time for the Korean War. Look to the left of the entrance when you arrive at Level UP’s subterranean storefront, and you’ll spot a model of Tucker’s 1948 Sedan sitting atop a glass case. Jackie Moore keeps the little burgundy Tucker “Torpedo” for some small sense of history of the space her program occupies. “You know they made these right here,” she explains, holding a plastic version of Tucker’s stillborn dream. “All 51 of them.”

Level UP is located in the basement beneath the food court of the Ford City Mall, a sprawling shopping center that opened up on the lot in 1965, borrowing its name from the third car company to take up residence here. Once upon a time, these underground tunnels housed cafeterias and machine classes for factory workers. These days, however, this particular wing stands more as a testament to the state of the American shopping mall in the early 21st century. Down here, there’s a hairstylist and shop devoted to eastern herbal remedies, but not much else to speak of beyond employee locker rooms and several empty storefronts. Moore apologizes for the mess when we first arrive. It’s clearly a well-loved space, with various tools of the trade scattered all over the tables and floor. Nearly every wall in the converted storefront is papered with writing — charts, diagrams and instructions for tinkering with electronics.

In the middle of the space is a strange four-wheeled vehicle, with exposed circuitry and a small chute with a spinning wheel that sends Frisbees flying at high speeds. On a nearby table sits a huge orange Pac-Man-shaped cutout on wheels and a nearly finished CNC machine. There are a number of deconstructed Roomba-like iRobot open-source platforms, including two that serve as the base for anthropomorphic banana and grape characters built from PVC piping that are, admittedly, a bit worse for wear. Toward the front, beneath the Tucker Torpedo, is a glass case loaded with trophies and certificates from competitions with names like Botball, all testaments to the work that goes on here. Jackie Moore has devoted this space and her life to teaching kids how to build robots.

Filed under: Robots

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