Robotics
Industrial robot finds its muse
February 10, 2012 6:30 am | News | CommentsNot all artists are extroverts. A portraitist at the CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany, this week is cool, precise, and metallic. Other artists, in fact, helped it get started as a project to test image-evaluation technologies that equips the robot with a sense of “sight”.
Robotic pack mule to lighten troops' load
February 8, 2012 4:14 am | News | CommentsToday's dismounted warfighter can be saddled with more than 100 lbs of gear, resulting in physical strain, fatigue, and degraded performance. To help alleviate physical weight on troops, DARPA is developing a highly mobile, semi-autonomous legged robot, the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), to integrate with a squad of marines or soldiers.
Studying butterfly flight to help build bug-size flying robots
February 2, 2012 6:44 am | News | CommentsTo improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of the prettiest bugs on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, the researchers hope to help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers.
Researchers find speed limit for birds—and drones
January 19, 2012 10:17 am | News | CommentsTeams at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology who are engineering bird-like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have found as part of their development work a theoretical speed limit that a bird, or a drone, must observe, no matter how much information it has about its environment.
Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots
January 19, 2012 6:35 am | News | CommentsDesigning an all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue missions is an arduous task for scientists. The machine must be flexible enough to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it's restricted from tight spaces. Some existing robots have these features, but the majority require large amounts of energy and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine by studying the locomotion of snakes.
'Open-source' robotic surgery platform going to medical research labs
January 12, 2012 7:42 am | News | CommentsRobotics experts at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Washington have completed a set of seven advanced robotic surgery systems for use by major medical research laboratories throughout the United States.
Send in the supplies: RoboCopters in Marines' future
January 11, 2012 11:24 am | News | CommentsMarines running low on ammo may one day use an app on their digital handhelds to summon a robotic helicopter to deliver supplies within minutes, enabled by technologies from a new Office of Naval Research program. The Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System is a five-year, $98 million effort to develop sensors and control technologies for robotic vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
Implanted biofuel cell converts bug's chemistry into electricity
January 6, 2012 4:42 am | News | CommentsAn insect's internal chemicals can be converted to electricity, potentially providing power for sensors, recording devices, or to control the bug, a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University report. The finding is yet another in a growing list from universities across the country that could bring the creation of insect cyborgs out of science fiction and into reality.
Leaping lizards and dinosaurs inspire robot design
January 4, 2012 10:02 am | by Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley | News | CommentsLeaping lizards have a message for robots: Get a tail. University of California, Berkeley, biologists and engineers studied how lizards manage to leap successfully even when they slip and stumble. They found that lizards swing their tails upward to prevent them from pitching head-over-heels into a rock.
Gumby-like flexible robot crawls in tight spaces
December 1, 2011 5:12 am | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsThe Harvard University laboratory of chemist George M. Whitesides, R&D Magazine ’s 2007 Scientist of the Year, has produced a new type of flexible robot that calls to mind the clay animation character Gumby. It can wiggle and squirm through tight spaces much like the squid and starfish that inspired researchers to design it.
Software will predict robot behavior before they are built
November 10, 2011 3:36 am | News | CommentsResearchers from three universities are collaborating to develop a new generation of design software that can accurately predict the physical behavior of robots prior to prototyping.
Controllable adhesion system helps robots hold on
November 10, 2011 3:26 am | by Nancy Stauffer, MIT Energy Initiative | News | CommentsSince the 1970s, when early autonomous underwater vehicles were developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), institute scientists have tackled various barriers to robots that can travel autonomously in the deep ocean. The fourth and final part to this four-part series discusses how MIT researchers have designed a controllable adhesion system for underwater robots.
Biomimetic pressure sensors help guide oceangoing vessels
November 9, 2011 3:18 am | by Nancy Stauffer, MIT Energy Initiative | News | CommentsSince the 1970s, when early autonomous underwater vehicles were developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute scientists have tackled various barriers to robots that can travel autonomously in the deep ocean. The third part to this four-part series looks at how biomimetic pressure sensors help guide oceangoing vessels.
Advanced mathematical techniques enable better AUV navigation
November 8, 2011 3:42 am | by Nancy Stauffer, MIT Energy Initiative | News | CommentsSince the 1970s, when early autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) were developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, scientists there have tackled various barriers to the design of robots that can travel autonomously in the deep ocean. Part two of the four-part series examines how advanced mathematical techniques enable AUVs to survey large, complex, and cluttered seascapes.
Mask-bot: A robot with a human face
November 7, 2011 7:22 am | News | CommentsA prototype of a new robot face that teams in Germany and Japan have developed ingeniously solves the problem of how to make realistic human features from a variety of angles. A projector accurately beams a human face onto the back of the mask, changing the face on demand.
Scientists improve autonomous underwater vehicles
November 7, 2011 3:19 am | by Nancy Stauffer, MIT Energy Initiative | News | CommentsSince the 1970s, when early autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) were developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Institute scientists have tackled various barriers to robots that can travel autonomously in the deep ocean. This four-part series examines current MIT efforts to refine AUVs’ artificial intelligence, navigation, stability, and tenacity.
Tank robot drives itself up the wall
November 2, 2011 12:54 pm | News | CommentsResearchers in the U.K. have built a tank-like robot that has the ability to scale smooth walls. It gets its ability from tiny mushroom cap-shaped fibers on its treads that use van der Waals forces to adhere to flat surfaces. Inspired by the feet of geckos, the robot could find use in power plants or search and rescue.
Toyota shows machines to help sick, elderly move
November 1, 2011 11:13 am | by Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsOn Tuesday, the auto giant Toyota showcased experimental robots that can help disabled patients work, or even get up out of bed. The company intends to commercialize its walk-assist products sometime after 2013.
Robot roach sheds light on evolution of flight
October 18, 2011 5:32 am | News | CommentsWhen engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, outfitted a six-legged robotic bug with wings in an effort to improve its mobility, they unexpectedly shed some light on the evolution of flight.
All for one, 'R-one' for all
October 11, 2011 12:44 pm | News | CommentsRobots for everyone. That's James McLurkin's dream, and as the director of a Rice University robotics laboratory, he's creating an inexpensive and sophisticated robot called the "R-one" to make the dream a reality.
Researchers develop smarter robot arms
September 21, 2011 4:31 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsBy combining two innovative algorithms developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers have built a new robotic motion-planning system that calculates much more efficient trajectories through free space. This will allow robots to execute tasks more efficiently and move more predictably.
Robots coming to aircraft assembly
September 16, 2011 9:29 am | News | CommentsUp to now, aircraft have been put together in huge assembly cells, but building the necessary facilities is expensive and time consuming. That is why Fraunhofer researchers have come up with a flexible assembly line concept that features robots working in the same way they do in automotive production.
NRL robotic loader system achieves composite material testing milestone
September 6, 2011 7:31 am | News | CommentsThe Naval Research Laboratory robotic materials testing system, NRL66.3, has achieved, to date, the highest industrial rates of fully automated production mode functionality known to NRL researchers, yielding a total of 216 specimen tests at a rate of 26 per hour under six-degrees of freedom multiaxiality conditions.
SwRI, Motoman Robotics sign collaboration agreement
September 2, 2011 3:42 am | News | CommentsSouthwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the Motoman Robotics Division of Yaskawa America Inc. have entered into a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on integrating Motoman Robotics' line of industrial robots with the open-source ROS (Robot Operating System) software.
MABEL: The world's fastest two-legged robot with knees
August 15, 2011 9:24 am | News | CommentsA robot in a University of Michigan lab can run like a human—a feat that represents the height of agility and efficiency for a two-legged machine. With a peak pace of 6.8 miles per hour, MABEL is believed to be the world's fastest bipedal robot with knees.
