It is no secret that living organisms possess hard and soft parts (bones & muscles) to have flexibility but also resiliency. It makes sense to build a robot with such components to adapt to its environment. John Rieffel and Jean-Baptiste Mouret have published a paper and video that explore this idea.
We have already covered how Disney researchers are working on robot acrobats that can flip through the air and stick the landing every time. Stuntronics are autonomous self-correcting aerial robotic performers that can perform challenging stunts perfectly every time.
In the past few years, we have covered a whole host of robots that use mapping and smart planning to negotiate rough terrain. This Beaver-inspired autonomous robot developed by the University at Buffalo researchers takes a different approach. It monitors and modifies its terrain to move ahead.
Using off-the-shelf components, the team used a mini rover with a camera and robotic arm to lift and move objects. The robot:
uses the algorithms Nils Napp developed to continuously monitor and scan its environment. It picks up bean bags and deposits them in holes and gaps in between the rock, brick and concrete. Eventually the bags form a ramp, which allows the robot to overcome the obstacles and reach its target location, a flat platform.
Pretty clever if you ask us. More info is available here.
We had the chance to cover the Giiro Posturebot a short while ago. The project is now live on Kickstarter. It comes with a Giiro mat that you will have to stand on for your posture to be monitored. As the developers explain, the smart mat has 600 sensors.
Here is another robot that can one day replace humans at restaurants. Developed by a French startup company, this pizza-making robot is capable of making 120 pies every hour. It uses 3 arms to spread sauce and perform other tasks to prepare a pizza in 30 seconds. This is almost 3 times as fast as humans.
There are plenty of posture correcting wearables on the market. This robot from Gazelab, a Korean startup, takes the idea to the next level. The Posturebot is a robotic system consisting of a standing desk, an app, a pressure-sensitive mat, and a small robot that mimics your movements.
There are plenty of researchers working on perfecting ways to train robots to perform tasks. Matei Ciocarlie’s Robotic Manipulation and Mobility (ROAM) lab is working on robots that can interact with the world in a more natural fashion. The below video shows a robotic arm that can be controlled with hand movement thanks to a smart glove.
Here is an affordable robot kit that lets you build AI enabled smartphone controlled robots. The Smartibot can also use your phone as its brain. It has an AI called YOLO to recognize objects. You can build a robot to bring you drinks, play music, and chase your cat.
Here is another autonomous inventory robot that can help retailers gather data to make better decisions. Shelfy features product scanning and recognition. It can identify empty spaces on the shelves and provides online reports to businesses. The below video from GBLRobotics shows how these robots can help retailers become more operationally efficient:
Robots and machines are already making life easier for farmers. The AgBOT is designed to harvest watermelons for aging farmers. It can autonomously identify and harvest ripe watermelons. The machine has a passive slapper mechanism to thump the watermelons and a microphone to determine whether or not they should be harvested.
