Building an acrobatic robot is easier said than done. Disney Researchers have built a robot with 2 degrees of freedom that uses a gravity-driven pendulum to complete stunts. It uses an IMU and laser range-finder to estimate its state mid-flight.
Here is a robotic dolphin capable of leaping into the air and crashing back into the water while completing its mission. It can swim fast and offer remote observation of its surroundings in a covert way. This video from New China TV shows this robotic dolphin in action:
Meet the PROBOT: a heavy duty robot capable of carrying payloads 3x its own weight. It is autonomous and can handle a variety of terrains. The PROBOT can carry up to 1,650 lbs of supplies and equipment. It can climb stairs and maneuver in confined areas.
Meet the YouRing: a smart light & sound for Universal Robots. The color can be changed depending on commands. The device has two buttons and also lets you save way points conveniently in freedrive mode.
Meet the Open Source Turtle Robot: a 3D printed drawing robot that you can build, program, and modify to draw interesting patterns. The robot is Arduino compatible. It runs on 4 AA batteries. Due to its affordability, this kit makes a wonderful gift for kids interested in learning about robots.
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Robotic vacuums are getting smarter all the time. The LG Cordzero R9 Robot is the latest one that relies on LG’s AI platform Deep ThiniQ to get the job done. The sensors allow the robot to learn its environment and avoid obstacles.
Meet the T-Frend: a drone that is used in Japan to monitor office workers and identifies employees that remain in the office after closing time. Chikara Kato, the inventor, suggests the data recorded by the drone to handle employees to work too much overtime.
Robots are doing many things for us already. On Kato Milk Farm, they are being used to milk cows. The challenge was to find people to work at a dairy farm. These robots can address that. Food is used to entice cows into the robot. The machine recognizes the cow, searches for its udders, and uses 4 arms to milk the animal.
The robot costs $200,000 but pays for itself in the long run. In the past, it took 9 hours to milk around 100 cows. The machine can do the job in 3 hours.
Robots are already capable of expressing their emotions through their LED display. Cornell University engineers have come up with a new approach that involves using a soft robotic skin to give robots spikes and goosebumps. The spike texture unit has embedded haptic tips while the goosebump unit varies between bulges and dents.
Researchers are always inspired by nature when improving their existing designs and coming up with new ones. MIT researchers have built an autonomous glider that can fly like an albatross. It can also swim along the water’s surface like a sailboat.
As the researchers explain:
The robotic system, which borrows from both nautical and biological designs, can cover a given distance using one-third as much wind as an albatross and traveling 10 times faster than a typical sailboat. The glider is also relatively lightweight, weighing about 6 pounds.
In regions of high wind, the robot is designed to stay aloft, much like its avian counterpart. Where there are calmer winds, the robot can dip a keel into the water to ride like a highly efficient sailboat instead.
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