This funny lookin’ fella weighs just 27 pounds, has 12 legs, and can carry you around on its back if you let it. The Land Crawler xTreme robot offers its master a ride on top of its square platform top, provided you don’t weigh more than 175 pounds. As it ambles around, it definitely doesn’t […]
3D for Better Control
If you can’t describe it you can’t control it. And control is what its all about. So we need to get better at describing what it is that our control system projects are going to do. This has some serious implications. First, if the programming language is not well suited to the task this will […]
Time Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of 2010
Seven are robotic: Google’s driverless car, eLegs’ Exoskeleton for paraplegics, Georgia Tech’s Deceitful Robot, Korea’s English-teaching robot, EMILY, the life-saving robot, Raytheon’s Iron-man Suit, and Israel’s AI Sarcasm Detection algorithm. Gizmag would add to that list Festo’s Bionic Handling Assistant and the spider-like nanobot created by a team of US scientists.
Motion Control or Mechatronics, What’s in a Name?
Are we talking about Motion Control? or are we talking about Mechatronics? Words are important in describing reality and communicating with others. The term Mechatronics was coined a few years ago, possibly from the frustration that the term Motion Control does not adequately cover the subject. It is, however, a made up word. And as […]
Pres. Obama Experiences Japanese Robots
On his recent Asian trip, at APEC in Yokohama, President Obama petted a Paro robot, met HRP-4C, the fashion/space/talking fembot, and tried out Japan’s new 30 km/hr personal mobility device. Click to enlarge photos.
More Manufacturing Breakthroughs
The idea of a 3D printing is pretty cool all on it’s own. But when you can make high strength parts, well, now you’ve really got something. One variation on 3D printing uses chopped glass fiber and ABS plastic that can be melted and flow the way conventional 3D printing materials behave. The combination of […]
The Future of Manufacturing
The Linux OS was an unparalleled event in technology. A computer operating system that didn’t crash, was virus proof and could run anything. Started by Linus Torvalds as a student and following the freeware approach of GNU development tools for processors, Linux was an idealistic approach to solving industry wide problems that individual companies were […]
Rapid Prototype Trends
3D solid model software has come a long way. It makes complex finite element analysis an integrated feature so that new designs can be explored in hours, rather than days or weeks of building prototype parts and making changes. New product development costs have been falling consistently since the advent of this technology. The logical […]
Three Major Robotic Events End — All Were In Asia
The World Expo 2010 held in Shanghai May 1 to October 31 and seen by 60 million visitors, showcased robots in many forms: guides to factory assistants, rescue bots to underwater research. Themed to focus on the cities of the future, the biggest draws were the Oil Industry Pavilion and their 4D “Oil Dream” movie;…
Universal Gripper Utilizes Coffee Bean-Filled Balloon
Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties remains, however, challenging. Most current designs are based on the multifingered hand, but this approach introduces hardware and software complexities. These include large numbers of controllable […]
Google’ Self-Driving Cars Have Racked Up 140,000 Driverless Miles on California Roads
The only accident was when one Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light. The cars used LIDAR, a video camera, four standard automotive radar sensors and a position estimating sensor along with Google AI software. The Google project was the brainchild of Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a…