Legged robots can outperform wheeled machines over rough, unknown terrains. Terrain-awareness is required to keep them out of trouble. Researchers have now developed a real-time, dynamic foothold adaptation strategy based on visual feedback to enable quadruped robots to adjust the landing position their feet.
Meet the Salto-1P: a small monopedal jumping robot capable of hopping continuously. Researchers have come up with a new control algorithm that enables the robot to play one-leg hopscotch. With precise foot placement, Salto-1P can jump on surfaces like furniture.
Here are a bunch of soft robotic jellyfish with eight pneumatic network tentacle actuators that can be used to protect coral reefs. They can swim freely untethered in the ocean and steer from side to side. These can also swim through orifices narrower than the diameter of the jellyfish.
Each of these jellyfish robots were made with a different body composition and tentacle actuator shore hardness for the study. To steer the jellywish, two impeller pumps were used to inflate the 8 tentacles. These types of robots can be used to monitor delicate marine organisms like coral reefs without causing any damage.
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The Shadow Dexterous Hand shouldn’t need any introduction. It is a robot hand with 20 degrees of freedom, absolute position & force sensors, and touch sensors on its fingertips that can pick and manipulate objects. The hand has a total of 24 joints. It fully integrates with ROS.
There is no better way to learn robotics than building and programming your own robots. This project form MusaW shows what it takes to build a ESP8266 WiFi controlled quadruped robot. It has 12 DOF with SG90 servos and can be controlled via a smartphone browser.
The entire project can be completed for under $60. You are going to need an Arduino Nano and a few other simple components to complete this project. The instructions are available here.
Here is a robotic finger for smartphones that lets you do more with them. The MobiLimb is a 5DOF robotic limb that can work with most modern smartphones. It enables them to move and interact with you. For instance, the MobiLimb can touch you as you get a notification, act as a stand, or simulate emotions.
Touch is detected on the surface. The angles of each motor are detected to allow manipulation. The MobiLimb can also work as a smartphone joystick.
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Flying a drone in complex environments can be still challenging even though these flying robots are getting smarter all the time. Drone crashes can happen for a variety of reasons. The Rotorigami ( Rotary Origami Protective System ) is an impact protection system that enables drones to survive challenging environments. It has a:
free-to-spin circular protector that is able to decouple impact yawing moments from the vehicle, combined with a cyclic origami impact cushion capable of reducing the peak impact force experienced by the vehicle.
Such an approach can enable drones to navigate in heavily cluttered environments safely and efficiently. More info is available here.
Remember Temi? It is a personal robot for your connected home. Its global sales has just begun. The robot has 16 different sensors and cameras to better serve you. It can recognize its owner, distinguish between different voices and assist with tasks, such as playing music and ordering food.
In the past few months, we have covered how robotic 3D printers on a mobile base can be used to erect structures. Scientists from NTUsg have taken the idea to the next level. They are using two robots for synchronized 3D printing with concrete. The robots were used to build a 1.86 meter long concrete structure in 8 minutes.
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Teaching robots how to use a knife properly is not as easy as it looks. Researchers at the ISU Robotics Lab have come up with a paper that explores how to control a 2DOF robot arm with a force/torque sensor to cut through things with press, push, and slice moves.
