Hasta La Gadget!

New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Simon Garnier and other researchers have used tiny robots called “Alices” to mimic the behavior of ants, something they say could help improve modern transportation. Ants are notorious for their colony-wide behavior, acting as one when assembled in groups and using the shortest paths to navigate to their food, forming a so-called superorganism.

The researchers achieved this by using robots said to be about the size of sugar cubes and equipped with light sensors. Above the robots was a projector that marked the robots’ trails with light, which the tiny devices were programmed to follow. The light trails were intended to simulate the pheromone trails left by ants that help them navigate.

The robots’ ability to navigate was very rudimentary: they were programmed to avoid obstacles and barriers, to follow light trails, and to move forward, with their forward direction changing angles frequently. It is not surprising, then, that initially the robots moved randomly forward, but that over time as their motions created light trails, they gravitated towards following the light trails.

Said Garnier about this behavior, “The principles that ants use to find shorter paths have actually been the basis of computer programs developed in the last 10 years to help decide what are the best paths for trucks to transport merchandise between cities ― the so-called traveling salesman problem. One of the most efficient algorithms to solve this problem is directly inspired by the same logic studied in our work, and is also used by telecommunications companies to route packets of information between cell phones.”

[via Livescience]

Researchers develop tiny robots that mimic ant behavior is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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As if there weren’t enough real jellyfish around to trigger our thalassophobia, researchers at Virginia Tech have created Cryo — an eight-armed autonomous robot that mimics jelly movement with the help of a flexible silicone hat. The man-sized jellybot altogether dwarfs previous efforts, hence the upgrade from small tank to swimming pool for mock field tests. And unlike the passively propelled bots we’ve seen recently, Cryo runs on batteries, with the researchers hoping to better replicate the energy-efficient nature of jelly movement to eventually increase Cryo’s charge cycle to months instead of hours. That’s also the reason these robotic jellyfish are getting bigger — because the larger they are, the further they can go. Potential uses include ocean monitoring and perhaps clearing oil spills, but the US Navy, which is funding the work, sees an opportunity to recruit jellies for underwater surveillance — a job the researchers say is suited to their natural-looking disguise. But, before the tables are turned, you can spy on Cryo for yourself in the video below.

Filed under: Robots, Alt

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Via: Wired

Source: Virginia Tech (Vimeo)

While there’s still a debate over whether the world’s real jellyfish population is exploding or not, a team at Virginia Tech is working hard to supplement the prehistoric blobs’ numbers with robotic monsters of their own. Huzzah? More »

Now this is a story that you do not hear every single day, where the robotics team from Mexico suffered a heartbreak, especially after their robot was stolen en route to the destination in a FedEx shipping truck. This particular incident nearly caused the team to cancel their trip to San Antonio, until a Good Samaritan group from Brandeis High School heard of their plight and decided to do something to help, once again proving that there is still some good left in this world.

Michael Blake, the head of the robotics team at Brandeis, said, “Their crate, which contained their robot, equipment and tools, was on a FedEx truck that was hijacked before it made it from Mexico over to the states.”

The Bronc Botz from Brandeis High School are now working alongside the Mexican team, and all should be in order in time for this weekend’s Alamo-First Regional Competition. Blake added further, “It’s been mostly facilitating them. They know what to do. They’ve built a robot. They’re a rookie team and we’re helping them basically providing materials and back up.” While the stolen robot took half a dozen weeks to construct, the team has just 2 days to build a new one, so all the best to them!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Robot Arm Breaks Off In Patient During Surgery, Drone Fleets Does Supply Runs In The Future,

Looking for a lifeguard that won’t get all out of shape like David Hasselhoff? A research lab in Iran is working on one – a robotic lifeguard that can respond instantly to passengers and crew who fall from ships by flying to their rescue and dropping a life preserver to them.

The flying robot is called Pars and it is ship-based. The quadcopter can be alerted when someone falls overboard, or is pushed overboard. Once it’s launched, Pars scans the area around the boat with a thermal sensor and drops a life preserver to keep them afloat until crew members can get to them. Hopefully the Baywatch theme is playing while all of this is going on.

Right now, the prototype Pars drone can only hold one life preserver ring, but the goal is for the ‘bot to hold up to three, allowing it to respond to multiple people. It’s a great concept and if they can pull it off, this one could save many lives.

Think about how many cruise ships lately have had problems and you start to see how this could be a real winner.

[via Robots.Net via Geekosystem]