Meet Marty the Robot v2: a wonderful coding robot ready to grow as your young students pick up new skills. It can be programmed in Scratch, Python, and JavaScript. Marty can walk, dance, turn, kick, and do everything in between. It has IR obstacle, tilt, and acceleration sensing, flexible hands, and 9 metal-geared smart servos.
Robots are going to do many things for us in the space in the future. Maxar’s SPIDER (Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot) will be used to robotically assemble spacecraft components. Maxar has been selected by NASA to take on this task. Here is how it will work:
SPIDER will enable spacecraft components to be robotically assembled and reconfigured while on-orbit. For Restore-L, SPIDER will assemble multiple antenna reflector elements into one large antenna reflector. SPIDER will also demonstrate in-space manufacturing using Tethers Unlimited’s MakerSat. MakerSat will manufacture a 10-meter lightweight composite beam, verifying its capability to form large spacecraft truss structures for future missions
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In order to master robotics, you need to experiment with real robots. The Kinova Gen3 lite Educational Robot has you covered. It has 7DOF, 2D/3D vision, embedded controller in each actuator, and torque sensor in each joint.
Meet the Blueye Pro from Blueye Robotics: an underwater drone for inspection jobs that is rated to a depth of 1000 ft. It has a tiltable camera, 3300 lumen lights, 3 knots forward speed, and a full HD camera with wide angle view. It runs for 2 hours on battery.
Researchers are inspired by nature all the time to improve the design of their robots. This video from Robomechanics Lab presents a robotic foot inspired by mechanical aspects of goat hooves. These guys studied:
the shape of the toes that grab rock features, the compliance of the foot pads that result in a concave contact patch, the separate toes that can maintain contact at high slope angles, and the combination of hard and soft materials.
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Meet the Omron LD-250 robot: a mobile robot with 250kg capacity that can move safely around humans and carry bulky items such as automotive parts. It is highly customizable and uses a smart routing system to adapt to changing conditions on the fly.
Meet the RoboFly: an insect-sized robot that can fly and drift on water. It flaps its wing to move in the air and on the ground. This micro-robot was developed by researchers at the University of Washington with a single, folded laminate sheet, so it is not difficult to assemble. Its wings are driven by piezoelectric actuators.
Soft robots are useful for manipulating fragile objects. Disney Researchers have come up with a method for enhance soft robots with proprioceptive sensing capabilities. These robots can reconstruct their full deformation state. The below video shows how they work:
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So you are serious about drone racing? You will need the right gear to perform. The iFlight Cinebee Hybrid FPV Racing Drone has a Runcam 4K camera with switchable resolution. It is also ready for FPV action. The drone weighs only 71.6g and is designed for its prop guards not to show up in your footage.
Here is a robot that can make life easier for people with disabilities. The JACO Assistive Robot can be mounted to a power wheelchair. It is made from carbon fiber and uses the same power source as a wheelchair. It has a weather-resistant design.
