Hasta La Gadget!

You pick up your first tan leather roundball at the age of 9, you practice religiously for a decade before you can even feel worthy of calling yourself a basketball player, and then you find a video online of a robotic seal that can shoot better than you after just a few weeks in the lab. Yep, some Taiwanese know-it-alls have put together a robo-seal that converts 99 percent of shots (admittedly with a toy ball launched at a toy hoop) within a three-meter range. It’s basically just an articulating arm with stereo vision for some good old depth perception, but it’s sophisticated enough to maintain its killer accuracy even if the target is moved from its spot. That’s more lethal that Shaq or Karl Malone’s elbows ever were. Video’s after the break, skip to the 1:05 mark if you don’t care about the details of how it’s done.

Continue reading Ball-throwing robot seal has a talent for basketball, embarrassing humans (video)

Ball-throwing robot seal has a talent for basketball, embarrassing humans (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That’s LOPES (Lower-extremity Powered ExoSkeleton) — not Lopez — and while this rehab robot can get otherwise disinclined parties to move their butts, it doesn’t resort to monotonous dance beats to do so. Researchers at the Netherlands’ University of Twente began work on LOPES in 2001 to assess motor skills and teach stroke victims how to walk again. Ten years later, LOPES — which looks like Forrest Gump’s leg braces on steroids — now sports eight degrees of freedom and automatically adjusts to fit the specific support needed per patient. LOPES’ overlords are working on a more compact and user friendly iteration, and expect a market-ready version to be available by mid-2012. In the meantime, LOPES has been enlisted in a larger EU project called Mindwalker, testing advanced control algorithms “to be used in autonomous exoskeletons.” Video of the future real-life RoboCop after the jump.

[Thanks, Mike]

Continue reading LOPES rehab robot gets bodies moving — no relation to JLo (video)

LOPES rehab robot gets bodies moving — no relation to JLo (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Robot hands have been grabbing, crushing, drawing and otherwise actuating for years, but have you ever seen one properly type? That’s the primary purpose of a new Virginia Tech design. Engineers built this Dexterous Anthropomorphic Robotic Typing (DART) hand to mimic the real deal as best they could, down to individually-actuating three-segment digits and 110 degrees of wrist rotation in a package the size of a real human arm. Using a total of 19 servo motors and high tensile strength wire for the tendons, they managed to create a single mechanical paw that can achieve an estimated 20 words per minute while typing. Next, they plan to cover it in silicone skin and add piezoelectric sensors to provide tactile feedback. Imagine that: the next time a secret family member severs your arm with a focused plasma beam, you’ll know where to go for replacement. Find a quick video and the full scientific paper at the links below.

Robot hand hits 20WPM, nearly ready to embrace infinite monkey theorem originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They’ve taught them how to flip pancakes and shoot arrows, and now they’re teaching humanoids to erase your whiteboard. That’s right, the same folks who brought you iCub in a feathery headdress are back at it with Fujitsu’s HOAP-2, a humanoid robot that looks like it’s related to the Jetsons’ maid, and can wipe a dry erase board clean via upper-body kinesthetic learning. While scientists force the robot’s arm through a number of erasing movements, an attached force-torque sensor records the patterns, allowing HOAP-2 to mimic its previous actions, and voilà! You’ve got a blank slate. Sure, this little guy looks perfectly harmless in comparison with the bow-and-arrow-wielding iCub, but replace that eraser with a switchblade and the human race is in a whole world of hurt.

Continue reading Fujitsu’s HOAP-2 robot wipes whiteboards clean — humankind next in line? (video)

Fujitsu’s HOAP-2 robot wipes whiteboards clean — humankind next in line? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not quite war-ready, but a new Skynet-like initiative called RoboEarth could have you reaching for your guide to automaton Armageddon sooner than you think. The network, which is dubbed the “World Wide Web for robots,” was designed by a team of European scientists and engineers to allow robots to learn from the experience of their peers, thus enabling them to take on tasks that they weren’t necessarily programmed to perform. Using a database with intranet and internet functionality, the system collects and stores information about object recognition, navigation, and tasks and transmits the data to robots linked to the network. Basically, it teaches machines to learn without human intervention. If the introduction of this robo-web hasn’t got you thinking of end times, maybe this will do the trick: it’s already taught one robot, the TechUnited AMIGO, to deliver a box of creamy fruit juice to a bedridden scientist. You can check out video of the newly appointed automated waiter after the jump.

Continue reading RoboEarth teaches robots to learn from peers, pour European fruit beverages (video)

RoboEarth teaches robots to learn from peers, pour European fruit beverages (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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