Meet the Yahboom Transbot Pi: an advanced Raspberry Pi robot kit that you can use for serious programming. It uses Rviz, Movelt, and Qt in ROS. It has a Astra Pro 3D camera for 3D mapping and navigation. This robot has various AI functions, so it can recognize colors, drive automatically, and detect faces.
Meet Panasonic’s Umoz Robot: a moss mobile robot that brings the sensation of life into indoor spaces. It reacts to light to move around. This robot essentially looks like a pot with legs. In sunny weather, the robot looks for a shade while in conditions more favorite for moss, it gets more active.
Here is a child patient robot designed for critical care training. The Pedia_Roid robot can be used to replicate changes in pulse and adverse reaction to treatment. The below videos show this robot in action:
This robot has various facial expressions and body movements. It comes with everything students need to practice basic life support skills.
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Here is another smart robot powered by Raspberry Pi that you can use for serious coding. The XiaoR Geek XR-ROS SLAM Smart Car is ready for autonomous navigation. It comes equipped with a Raspberry Pi 4B. It can be coded in Python and C. This robot has a 1080p HD camera, XR LiDAR s1 module, and a 3.5-inch touchscreen display.
Meet MAB’s Honey Badger Robot: a quadrupedal robot that can take on challenging outdoor tasks. It has a water and dustproof body. This robot is smart enough to operate without additional sensors such as LiDAR. It comes with level 2 autonomy. Once the operator provides direction and speed, the robot does the rest by deciding how to move while keeping its balance.
Researchers look to nature all the time to improve their designs. BirdBot happens to be an energy efficient robot leg by a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of California, Irvine. It is designed to need fewer motors than other leg robots. As the researchers explain:
BirdBot benefits from a foot-leg coupling through a network of muscles and tendons that extends across multiple joints.
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Robots are already being used to perform all kinds medical procedures these days. The TSolution One System from THINK Surgical is a surgical robot for total knee replacement. It offers open platform choice for implant options. This system comes with TPLAN, a 3D pre-surgical planning workstation and TCAT robot.
iRobot robot vacuums keep getting smarter. The company has now announced that it is rolling iRobot Genius 4.0 Home Intelligence software update to Roomba robot vacuums and Braava jet robot mops. This update brings customizable smart maps to Roomba i3 & i3+ robots.
MIT’s Mini Cheetah Robot shouldn’t need any introduction. In the past few years, we have covered a bunch of videos showcasing its agility. This video from MIT shows this robot now running at record speeds. It can also turn with agility, even on slippery surfaces like ice.
The robot uses a new learning-based approach to run in a simulator and adapt to unstable terrains. This approach also lets the robot adapt to damage. The Mini Cheetah can now run as fast as 3.9m/s.
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Tethered drones are used when extended flight operation is required. This approach is ideal for fruit picking using quadcopers, inspection in hard to reach areas, and other comparable situations. This video explores a tethered power supply system for one or two drones.
