Remember Cassie? It is a bipedal robot that can reach areas not easily accessible to wheeled robots. This video from Dynamic Robotics Laboratory shows how the robot can now hop, skip, and run. It was achieved by using reinforcement learning to train neural networks to “imitate bipedal gait behaviors with any motion capture data.”
Here is a self-reconfigurable modular robot that can connect to other robots at any point. FreeBOTs have a spherical ferromagnetic shell and an internal magnet. This approach allows more configurations to be achieved. FreeBOT has only two motors but can climb on magnetic walls and combine with others to traverse complex terrain.
Meet the Adeept PiCar Pro: an educational kit that comes with everything you need to build a smart robot car powered with a Raspberry Pi. This kit is compatible with Raspberry Pi 3/4 B/B+ boards. It has a 4DOF robotic arm to manipulate small objects.
Plenty of researchers are working hard to give robots lifelike expressions. Disney Research has posted a video that describes a system for lifelike gaze interaction between people and robots. Motor movements take care of blinking, breathing, and saccades to create complex lifelike behaviors.
So you would like to use your 3D printer to print with food ingredients? The Cakewalk 3D is just the tool for the job. To get started, prepare your mix, pour it into the Cakewalk 3D tube, and attach the unit to your 3D printer. You can use this with chocolate, ketchup, honey, vegetable puree, and everything in between.
Here is a raptor-inspired drone with morphing wing and tail that can achieve superior flight agility. According to EPFL engineers, this drone can adjust the shape of its wing and tail with artificial feathers to change direction fast, fly slower without falling to the ground, and reduce air resistance when flying fast.
Meet Adam’s Hand: a fully-adaptive bionic hand that lets amputees live an independent life. It has a water resistant design (IP44) with adaptive grip technology. It uses one motor to move all the fingers, making them adapt to grasped objects’ shape and size.
Here is another heavy duty robot ready for rough terrain. The SDRRobots Heavy-Duty All-Terrain Wheeled Robot can carry over 200 pounds over rough terrain. It has a max speed of 3mph and uses 4 wheelchair motors.
Meet the iRobot Root rt0: a coding robot for kids 6+ that teaches them basics of coding through play. It has 3 levels of coding, from graphical coding all the way to full-text coding. It has over 20 sensors and functions and can be programmed to drive, draw, and play music.
There is no better way to learn electronics and coding than building and programming your own robots. You can always get inspired by what other makers are doing. Take this PyBot SCARA Robotic Arm for instance: it is a Python coded, Arduino M0 based robot with 5DOF in total.
