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Remember that high speed robot from last year, that could beat humans at rock, paper, scissors? Since then, researchers at the University of Tokyo's Ishikawa Oku Lab have continued to work on it. The result? Well, they couldn't really improve its accuracy beyond 100 percent, so instead they made it faster.
Driverless cars to invade England by 2015 | DVICEIf you've been to London's Heathrow Airport recently, chances are you've caught a glimpse of something called an ULTra PRT transport pod. Since 2011, these driverless pods have been shuttling travelers from terminal to terminal at the massive airport. That's all well and good, but now these driverless robo-cars are breaking free of their confines and heading out into the city streets.
The city of Milton Keynes lies just to the north of London. Over 200,000 folks call the place home, meaning that the streets can get a tad congested from time to time. But thanks to a new fleet of pod cars, that might just be about to change. The first few units will be deployed as early as 2015. By 2017, Milton Keynes is expected to have 100 of the futuristic, driverless vehicles.
There's a new quadrotor out there, one which defies all categorization. All at once, it can fly, roll across the ground and sail along the water. It's also got some seriously precise handling, giving it a possible future as a search and rescue vehicle. It's called the MUWA, which is short for "Multi-field Universal Wheel for Air-land Vehicle with Quad Variable-pitch Propellers".
The secret to MUWA's abilities is a simple foam ring, designed to allow the quadrotor to roll along the ground. The addition of a second, deployable ring both allows it to navigate waterways as well as to deliver flotation devices to those who need them.
We tend to think of livestock farmers as "one man and his dog," but if AgResearch of New Zealand has anything to say, that pair may have to move over to include a robot. A team led by Dr. Andrew Manderson is developing AgriRover, an agricultural robot inspired by NASA’s Mars rovers. It’s a proof-of-concept prototype designed to show how robots can make life easier and more productive for livestock farmers.
The basic idea behind AgriRover is precision agriculture. That is, instead of using conventional methods of tending to entire fields at one time, the farmer uses robotics and other technologies to deal with problems on a much smaller scale.
Better known for producing the world's most advanced exoskeletons, Japan's Cyberdyne is expanding its portfolio with a new as-yet-unnamed industrial cleaning robot for very large areas such as factories and warehouses.
Researchers from Cornell University are using human trainers to help teach robots to not make stabbing motions with knives around humans. The researchers created a video showing a robot checking out items at a grocery store, including a knife.
Over a process of trial and error, the human is able to teach the robot how close they can get with a knife without scaring or hurting humans nearby. The learning algorithm used in the robot allows the researchers to teach the robot in small increments and refine its trajectory over time.
YouTube - Human touch makes robots smarter: On Learning Context-Driven User Preferences
Asahi unveils robotic draft beer dispenser for high-volume barsJapan's largest brewery, Asahi, looks set to steal a march on its competition by developing a robotic beer pouring machine for high-volume bars. Connecting to the keg, the machine pours up to six perfect beers at a time, taking around 12 seconds per glass, but more importantly, doing so without specialized labor and with zero wastage.
Osaka-based Kubota Corporation has built a robust brand for its agricultural machinery over the last three decades, and hence it was no surprise to see the company showing an unpowered exoskeleton at the International Robotics Exhibition.
Though not yet at market, the ARM-1 is a finished product that is expected to sell in the range of JPY 110,000 to 120,000 (US$1,100 to $1,200) as a productivity aid for fruit picking and any activity where a worker's arms are held above their shoulders for extended periods.
For my sins, I spent a university vacation picking fruit many moons ago, and still recall the pain in my back and arms from having my arms above my shoulders for 10 to 12 hours a day. After trying the ARM-1 in a faux grape-picking situation, I immediately understood the benefits. Think of the ARM-1 as an adjustable set of arm rests, that are stabilized by the exoskeleton structure and anchored on the hips and shoulders.
A US team from the University of Pennsylvania has taken out the 2013 James Dyson Award with the Titan Arm, an upper body exoskeleton that augments human strength. The team will receive the £30,000 (US$48,260) first prize, with an additional £10,000 (US$16,100) going to the University Of Pennsylvania Engineering department. Competing against 650 international entries, which were whittled down to 20 finalists, the Titan Arm shared the limelight with two runners up, who will each take home £10,000.
A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.
Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot – a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.
FAA cautiously agrees to some use of civilian drones | Cutting Edge - CNET NewsWhile still far from giving a thumbs up to unmanned flying vehicles crowding the skies, the government agency recommends that some drones be allowed.
The Federal Aviation Administration weighed in on the increasing civilian use of autonomous drones on Thursday. The government agency released a report outlining a roadmap for certain cases in which unmanned drones could be permissible.
In the report (pdf), with the lengthy title "Integration of Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System Roadmap," the FAA said that autonomous drones are already being used in disaster response, cargo transport, aerial mapping, and commercial photography. While drones are already buzzing around, the FAA is cautious with allowing wholesale use of the flying machines.
Exoskeletons are fusing man and machine to reduce workplace injuries and restore freedom to the disabled or infirm—but they have yet to escape the lab, and worse, only a few folks could realistically afford one even if they did.
A group of University of Pennsylvania students hope their Titan Arm exoskeleton, winner of the 2013 James Dyson Award, might change that.
“Current exoskeletons are prohibitively expensive at more than $100,000,” the team notes, “Using lean principles, we created Titan for less than $2,000.”
Titan Arm is an untethered aluminum exoskeleton powered by a wearable battery pack. It fits over one arm and is controlled by a joystick, a motor in the back, and a cable threaded through a pulley at the elbow joint.
When wearing the Titan Arm users are endowed with super strength—in this case, the ability to lift 40 pounds more than usual.
As an idea, the Roomba sounds like every lazy but clean-loving person's dream. Most people know Roomba as the little circular vacuum 'bot that can get under tricky areas like beds and uses sensors to seamlessly suck up your house's dirt.
And though current Roombas have mostly been able to live up to that idea, iRobot decided an upgrade to suction power was in order. With the help of its newfangled AeroForce technology, the clean-loving bot is now able to use a combination of three grime-busting features to give your house a thorough sweep.
Every week at a National Institutes of Health (NIH) drug-testing lab, a robotics system performs millions of experiments faster and with greater precision than any human could. The simple goal: to find new treatments and cures.
Iranian engineers have tested a drone designed to rescue people at risk of drowning.
The Pars robot has eight propellers and can carry up to three life rings which it can drop within arms-length of potential victims.
The project's engineers said they were able to reach targets more quickly than a lifeguard in tests carried out near the shore of the Caspian Sea.
But they said more time and funds would be needed to carry out real rescues.
The early-stage experiments were carried out in August, but the details were only recently reported outside Iran by the Robots.net news site.
In them the robot raced against a human lifeguard to reach a person pretending to struggle 75m (247ft) out to sea.
At its fastest, the drone was able to release a life ring to the target within 22 seconds of launch, beating the lifeguard who took about 90 seconds to reach him.
"We carried out 13 tests over a four-day period - some were done at day and a few at night using LED lights," Amin Rigi, co-founder of Tehran-based RTS Lab told the BBC.
As evidenced by ongoing efforts in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, getting aid and support personnel in and victims out of disaster-stricken areas is a major problem when infrastructure such as runways has been rendered unusable. A new aircraft concept combining features of an airship, plane, helicopter and hovercraft that is being developed as part of the European Commission's Extremely Short Take Off and Landing On any Surface (ESTOLAS) project could help address the problem.
Company begins a clinical trial of its Walking Assist Device at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to assess its ability to help stroke patients improve mobility.
Honda's latest foray into the world beyond cars and bikes may sound like a bit of a leap, but it's the next logical step in the company's line of personal mobility devices.
The Walking Assist Device, which we took a look at back in 2008 but ultimately dates back to 1999, has evolved from an interesting concept that might make walking a bit easier to the subject of a new clinical trial that might help stroke patients improve their mobility.
Drones are a great way for the military to check out the enemy without putting soldiers in danger, but most of them aren't exactly stealthy. This tiny new drone called the Maveric fixes that problem, by looking to most casual observers like just another pesky bird.
In the search for sunken treasure, finding a wreck is only part of the problem. Rusted, aging ships are often dangerous and inaccesible to human divers. Traditional ROVs provide an alternative, but are often clumsy and too bulky to squeeze through tight spaces. Enter U-CAT, the crafty little ROV modeled after the gentle sea turtle.
