Our cars are going to become a whole lot more advanced in the future. While level-4 and 5 self-driving cars are years away, companies are adding AI to their cars to make life easier for drivers. Hyundai & Baidu have joined forces to develop Xiaodu, which is a vehicle AI robot designed to organize tasks, warn drivers when they are tired, and do other tasks.
Robot firefighters are noting new. They are used to contain large fires while keeping humans out of danger. The Thermite RS1-T3 Robotic Firefighter from Howe & Howe is a 1,250 GPM robot that can put out fires of any magnitude. It comes with a 25 HP air cooled diesel engine, zero degree turning radius, 5,000lb winch, live video feed, and towing capacity of 1,750lbs .
Everybody knows that indoor plants need ample lighting to grow, so why not let a robot take care of it. Sun Tianqi is the roboticist behind this 6-legged robot that can chase sunlight. This modified HEXA robot moves towards sunshine when needed and moves back into shade on its own.
The Brunel Hand 2.0 is here. It is a lightweight robotic hand for researchers that can be programmed via Arduino IDE. It has nine degrees of freedom and 4 degrees of articulation. The hand has open source hardware with PLA plastic, TPU and Urethane construction.
Here is another bio-inspired robot that is fun to play with and serves as an educational robot for kids. The Tamiya Centipede robot adapts its movement to the terrain to move forward. It is easy to assemble with a screwdriver.
Here is a robot gripper with 3 fingers and interchangeable parts that can be adjusted to pick up a wide range of objects. The VV3-GRIPPER comes with vacuum actuated bellows to operate the finger. You get a circular rubber ball, Y shaped rubber tip, and vacuum suction cup.
Meet the Unibo robot: a cute assistant robot with AI that uses speech and facial recognition to interact with humans. It stands 32cm high and 26cm wide. The Unibo can be used to provide customers with useful info, greet visitors, and serve as a smart partner to humans.
In the past few months, we have covered plenty of cool 3D printed robot grips here. This one uses an airtight vacuum grip and pneumatic system to handle all kinds of items. The shape can be easily customized. The below video shows what this is all about:
Meet the Mystic: an AI powered quadcopter that can fly autonomously, recognize objects and people, and respond to gesture commends. It has 5 smart flight modes. The drone is smart enough to follow people autonomously. It can recognize up to 6 different gestures.
More medical facilities are now using robots to help their patients recover from serious injuries and conditions. This video from Texas A&M College of Engineering shows a robotic system with 8DOF that can be used on both right and left arms to help patients complete their practice.
