Here is another RC robot made for those of you serious about BattleBots. The VEX Robotics Warhead comes with over 270 pieces. It has a push activated spinning disc as its weapon. You can adjust the angle of the outer wings and pose the tail in different orientations.
Soft robots are going to play a big role in space exploration, search & rescue, medical surgery, rehab, and other fields. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a soft robot powered by pressurized air that can pave the way for fully untethered robots for a variety of missions. The weight and complexity of components needed to power the device is greatly reduced.
Before this research, we couldn’t build fluidic soft robots without independently controlling each actuator through separate input lines and pressure supplies and a complex actuation process. Now, we can embed the functionality of fluidic soft robots in their design, allowing for a substantial simplification in their actuation.
explained Nikolaos Vasios, a graduate student at SEAS.
[HT]
Improving balance in robots is an ongoing field. In fact, robots are getting better at it all the time. Hybrid Robotics has shared a video that shows how Cassie, bipedal robot, can learn to ride hovershoes. The robot was tested riding hovershoes on rough and uneven outdoor train and up/down steep inclines.
As the researchers explain:
We created a framework for autonomous bipedal robotic locomotion using a wheeled platform. This framework includes a computer vision system, a path planner, and a feedback control strategy. In our experiments, we show the robustness of our controller through a variety of tasks, such as riding the Hovershoes down a few stairs, riding on rough and uneven outdoor terrain, riding up and down steep inclines, and leaning into a turn to quickly go around corners.
Cassie operates either by receiving translation and rotation velocity commands from an operator, or completely autonomously by detecting obstacles and planning paths around them to reach a goal location.
[HT]
Robots are already capable of grilling, making ice creams, and serving customers at restaurants. Barista Sawyer is a collaborative robot that can serve fresh coffee to guests. Sawyer has a 7 degrees of freedom arm with 1260 mm reach to maneuver in tight spaces. It has force sensing to complete tasks with precision. The below video shows it in action:
Robot hands are becoming more advanced all the time. Toyoda Gosei is working on a tactile hand that can sense the shape and softness of objects. By combining the hand with collaborative robots by QBIT Robotics, it is possible to build robots that can perform work in a more human way.
There is no better way to learn robotics than building and programming your own robots. This 1/10th Scale Curiosity Mars Rover could inspire you to build your own space robots. The builders worked hard to make the robot visually accurate to the original rover. It has a 6 wheel drive system, a fully-functional Rocker-Bogie Suspension System, 360-degree camera/sensor turret, 3D LiDAR, and servo steering.
Here is a kit that lets you get serious about pneumatics and inflatables. Programmable Air comes with a pressure sensor, 3 pneumatic valves, and two compressor/vacuum pumps. It can be controlled via Arduino Nano. It comes ready to go out of the box and is expandable with valves and sensors.
HEXBug has a bunch of new BattleBots for you to play around with. The company has announced the following set of BattleBots and modules:
Blacksmith has a hammer to attack its opponents while Biteforce can tear its them apart. End Game has over 290 pieces and is ideal for kids who want to build their own bots. The VEX Robotics Warhead by HEXBUG has 270 piece and a push activated spinning disc weapon. You can always the BYOB kit with customizable armor and weapons.
[HT]
Amazon is serious about its drone delivery service. It has released a new video that shows how Amazon Prime Air’s new delivery drone will work. These drones have a sense & avoid system to operate autonomously and safely. The electric drones can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages under 5 pounds in less than 30 minutes.
Here is another humanoid robot capable of playing a musical instrument. University of Tokyo researchers have developed the Kojiro robot with a body that mimics the way human skeleton, muscles, and tendons work to generate motion. While Kojiro uses DC motors, it uses them to pull cables to simulate how muscles and tendons contract and relax.
