Here is a robotic eel with sensors and modular design that can find the sources of water pollution. Researchers from EPFL have developed Envirobot that can swim through contaminated water. It uses chemical, physical and biological sensors to find pollution sources.
It goes without saying that not every robot is suitable for handling delicate items. Soft Robotics has soft grippers that can be used to handle a wide variety of fragile products. This video shows its egg pick & place automation system in action. The robot is capable of removing eggs from the carton without dropping them.
Robot vacuums are getting smarter all the time. The LG Hom-Bot Turbo+ Robot Vacuum is a WiFi enabled system with Google Assistant compatibility for easy control. The CR5765GD is compatible with iOS and Android devices. It can be accessed from anywhere and has 7 cleaning modes.
Here is an underwater drone with wireless control compact enough to fit in your hand. It can move in various directions and lasts up to 30 minutes. The robot has a 720p camera with a wide angle lens. It is compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows systems.
Meet Baddy: an open source badminton robot that lets you play solo or with your friends to get some practice. It has a portable design and can be controlled using an app. The system consists of a launcher and feeder. It can be used indoors or outside.
The Loomo Enterprise platform is finally available. It is an extendable robotic platform that lets you develop robots for elderly care and other applications. It can be used for accident detection, video live streaming, real-time data sharing, and more.
In the past few months, we have had the chance to cover what the MakerArm robotic arm is capable of. It is a robot with interchangeable heads that can handle 3D printing, milling, laser engraving, and other tasks. You can also use custom heads for it.
Here is a robot that can open a SentrySafe Model MS0100 with a million possible combinations. Nathan Seidle received the safe as a gift with no combination. He managed to build a robot to open the safe. The key was to bring the combination down to a manageable level for the robot to handle.
Robots are going to be all around us in the future. In order for them to navigate safely around pedestrians, they will need to account for human behaviors and navigation rules. Taking into account every random human movement may be too complex but robots can be taught what not to do to avoid violating social norms.
In the past few months, we have covered plenty of cool soft robots here. Stanford researchers have built a new vine-like robot that can grow across long distances without moving its body. It is made of a tube of soft material folded inside itself. It grows without the entire body moving.
While the body lengthens, the rest doesn’t move, which means even if the robot gets jammed, it can continue functioning. The Vinebot prototype is powered through pneumatic air pressure. In the future, a version that grows using liquid will be developed.
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