Innovation is the watchword of mechatronics. The pressure for solutions in alternative energy continue to push the boundaries of design in electromechanical systems. In the wind energy arena the biggest change has been the shift to direct drive permanent magnet generators. By eliminating the gear “increaser” to convert the low RPM of the propeller system […]
Lively international innovation summit about robotics
In Lyon, France, 14th to 16th March, 2012. Save the date! By Frank Tobe, Editor/Publisher, The Robot Report (www.TheRobotReport.com)and Catherine Simon, General Secretary, French Federation of Robotics Today’s devices are becoming smarter and connected. They sense their environment, process the data collected and act upon their decisions autonomously or semi-autonomously. The transformation is beyond productivity and enters…
Two newsworthy examples of healthcare robots
Children’s Hospital Boston sends Vgo telepresence robots home with post-op patients in a pilot program that includes the robots into its regular post-op care program. Doctors and nurses now have a direct line of communication and observation between themselves, the patients and their family as they recover at home. Vgo telepresence visits take 10-15 minutes…
Google’s Response to Apple’s Siri: Buy Cleversense
Cleversense, a learning AI with a natural language processing front-end – and the developer of the popular Alfred personal assistant app – has been sold to Google for an undisclosed amount. Fear that Apple’s Siri “could provide a new paradigm for searching the Web that circumvents Google’s search engine and ads” may be the reason.…
Friction Part 2
An interesting aspect of actuator design popped up in a couple of recent applications. The efficiency value of the actuator isn’t often the top parameter on the list of things to check when making a selection. But it should be. Efficiencies vary wildly, even from the same vendor, and will have signficant impact on the […]
Robots in the Kitchen: Sooner Than You Think
“James (a PR2 robot from Willow Garage) and Rosie (a custom lightweight two-armed robot from Kuka and DLR) aren’t specifically programmed with a “left, right, break egg, stir” type command set. They’re taught the ingredients for the dishes, and the order that things work in, and whether they need heating and so on. The robots…
Google Gets Patent for Driverless Car
Google was granted a US Patent “for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode.” Now comes the endless red tape over safety, negotiations with vehicle manufacturers, etc., that will tie things up for years. Patent experts say that Google’s patent will not prevent others developing rival self-drive…
Iranians Hacked US Drone And Instructed It To Land In Iran
In an exclusive to The Christian Science Monitor, an Iranian engineer describes how they hacked a U.S. military drone – a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel – into landing at an Iranian airbase. First they cut off communications links and then reconfigured the drone’s GPS coordinates to make it land at what the drone thought was…
Friction, Friend or Foe?
Friction is rarely talked about in motion control circles (pun intended for those paying attention). It is the “waste” energy in mechanical systems. We spend a lot of time and sometimes cost, trying to eliminate it. Many times we just ignore it. This was the case when a friend of mine was designing a material […]
Robotics is a Highly Fragmented Industry With Few Common Standards or Platforms
by Frank Tobe, Publisher, The Robot Report with Manoj Sahi, roboticist and educator, India Imagine being present at the birth of a new industry. It is an industry based on groundbreaking new technologies, wherein a handful of well-established corporations sell highly specialized devices for business use, and a fast-growing number of start-up companies produce innovative…
Will there be a universal robotic control system?
From a highly fragmented industry with few common standards or platforms, there will soon be a universal interface so that 3rd parties can add platforms and modules to robotic systems. There won’t be a commercial version of Willow Garage’s ROS nor any other universal robotic operating system, but within academia and the emerging service robotics…
Programming Software and Control
Writing software for control applications isn’t the easiest thing. It’s probably been 15 years since I had to write any actual code for a control application. I have scripted and taught training classes in PLC programming and am very familiar with ladder logic programming and Boolean instructions, although I am less familiar with the latest […]
2011 Robot Gift Suggestions
Gift and book suggestions for almost every family member. Product descriptions, photos, prices, and where to buy.
Robots in Paradise?
30-day sailing vacation ending in time to go to Las Vegas for CES. No cells, no Internet. Just sun, rain, wind and friends.
Robotics Labs and Companies Open Up for EU Robotics Week
Today is the start of the first European Robotics Week: from 28th of November to 4th of December 2011. Check events calendar for an event near you. In a novel approach to show their labs efforts, more than 45 European Robotics Labs open their doors to the public via live-streaming.
Tranportation, Economics and the New Solutions
In the US, and most industrialized economies, the second largest expense of individuals and households is personal transportation. Given the hundreds of man-years in development of the technology, the extremely low cost and high energy density of gasoline and diesel as fuels, it is not surprising that the dominant means of transportation is combustion powered. […]
Intelligrated adding 200 tech/engineering jobs at new Ohio facility
Intelligrated, a material handling automation integrator, is building a new R&D facility in Ohio. 200 new tech and engineering jobs will be added. The new facility will support the company’s plans for strategic growth in the material handling industry, a growth area for industrial robotics. Intelligrated’s move gives credence to IFR statement at iRex: “Robots…
Aldebaran Robotics Acquires Siri-like Front-End for their NAO Robot
Aldebaran Robotics, the venture-funded Paris-based developer of the NAO robot, has acquired the assets of the recently defunct Mindscape, a French gaming software company. NOTE: there are now 2,000 NAO robots in and around academia and a lower-cost commercial version is on the way. Karotz, a Siri-like internet-connected device which Mindscape acquired when Karotz’s parent…
EV’s Everywhere, and More!
Alternative energy fans are getting good news this year end, 2012 will be the year of the electric car. No matter what flavor of technology, dual drive train hybrid, true hybrid, plug in electric, there will be something for everybody. American buyers will be able to buy American hybrid cars. The Chevy Volt will be […]
Foxconn to mass produce their own robots
Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) breaks ground for $223 million R&D and manufacturing facilities in Taiwan to develop and produce robots. The project is expected to generate an estimated $4 billion in production value in the next three to five years, create about 2,000 jobs, replace 500,000 mainland Chinese workers with 1 million robots…
Huge employer in China makes big step toward robots
Copied and cross-linked with permission from: The New Economy, November 17, 2011Foxconn, a big contractor for Apple and others, breaks ground for robot facilities. It plans to replace 500,000 workers with 1 million robots. Workers are seen inside a Foxconn factory in the township of Longhua in China’s southern Guangdong Province in this 2010 photo. After a spate…
Toyota displays four new healthcare robots available in 2013
Toyota displays four new nursing and healthcare robots which are scheduled to be commercialized and available for sale in 2013. Two robots assist with walking, another with balance and the fourth is for patient transfer from bed to toilet and back. Photos and details here.