Meet the Skydio R1: a smart drone with a 4K camera that captures your outdoor activities while avoiding obstacles. The Skydio R1 uses 13 cameras to see and understand the world around it. It has a 4K camera to capture sharp video. The mobile app gives you easy sliders and control, so you can easily interact with the drone.
Robots are becoming safer to use around humans. Researchers are always looking for new approaches to pull that off. Volkswagen Group has shared a new approach for safe cooperation between people and robots. Their automation system doesn’t require safety barriers. As this video shows, the robot slows down its movement as soon as the worker enters the yellow area.
The robot completely stops when the human goes into the red area. These dynamic safety zones allow humans and robots to work together without a physical barrier. More info is available here.
Meet the Jue Ying Robot: a 4-legged bot made at Zhejiang University that can change its gait to adapt to any situation. It is 1 meter long and has a max payload of 20kg. The robot can go for 2 hours on one charge. It can walk on slopes and climb stairs. You can even kick the robot, and it still manages to keep its balance.
Meet the LeveTop: an autonomous drone with a foldable design and smartphone control that can fly up to 20 minutes on battery. It has a 1080p stabilized camera and lets you transfer captured shots over WiFi. LeveTop has a top speed of 33mph. Its four arms and propellers can be folded when you are done with the drone.
Plenty of drones with come sensors, GPS, and all kinds of fancy features to avoid obstacles and fly around without an accident. Still, flying drones through cluttered spaces is not always easy. Existing approaches rely on mapping to tell drones exactly where they are. A group of MIT researchers have developed NanoMap, which allows drones to fly 20 miles per hour through dense environments such as forests.
The system considers the drone’s position to be uncertain, so it models by taking that into account. NanoMap:
uses a depth-sensing system to stitch together a series of measurements about the drone’s immediate surroundings. This allows it to not only make motion plans for its current field of view, but also anticipate how it should move around in the hidden fields of view that it has already seen.
NanoMap uses depth-sensing to measure its surroundings but also searches the history of all its view to anticipate how to move in the places it can’t see. More info is available here.
Robots making an escape is not exactly new. Boston Dynamic’s robot dog SpotMini is now more than capable of doing it. It can open an unlocked door to make a run for it. The below video shows how these bots can pull it off:
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Watching wolves in their natural habitat is going to be easier with a robot that looks very similar to a wolf cub. John Downer has shared a video that shows Spy Wolf Cub hanging out around wolves, watching them do their thing. It also shows mosquitoes and other challenges these creatures face in nature.
Robots are going to take many jobs from us. More importantly, they can take on challenging tasks such as 3D printing complex concrete structures and buildings. Shotcrete 3D printing is a robot-controlled process that involves generative manufacturing of complex concrete structures. The below video demonstrates the process:
So you would like to turn your Android device into a telepresence robot? Ralph has you covered. This self-balancing bot comes with a Husarion CORE2 controller with open firmware. Just bring your tablet or smartphone, and you are ready to go. Ralph lets you make video calls with people around it. It has two wheels, 2 DC motors, one servo, and one orientation sensor.
Here is another cute robot with wireless control for kids. The Cady Wile robot has 3 control modes. It can sing, dance to fun songs, and put on a show with its RGB ear lights. The battery lasts for up to 80 minutes. You can put things in its tray and send them to others in your home.
