Meet the iRobot 510 PackBot: a robot designed to deal with CBRN threats. It has 5 sensor mounting locations. It can be used to gather data on explosives, dangerous chemicals, harmful gases, and more. The robot sends real-time information about hazards to the team. It also provides reconnaissance on the status of victims.
Robots are going to do many things for us in the future. That applies to serving beer as well. The Keg-a-Droid is an interesting robot that serves you beer. It can dispense a slim quarter barrel keg or 1/6 barrels. It can keep your beer cool as long as you remember to add ice. The Refrigerated Keg-a-Droid has a standard kegerator. You can control the robot with one hand.
You can’t expect to learn about robots if you don’t hack or play with them. The HR-OS1 Humanoid Endoskeleton is a powerful robot designed for educators and researchers. It is a humanoid platform that you can build yourself. It has an onboard Linux computer and can be customized with 3D printed parts. The HR-OS1 is a hackable, modular, and humanoid robot.
Meet the MPI Cable Simulator: a cable-driven parallel robot that moves humans around to provide them with a richer virtual reality experience. The motion of the simulator cabin is controlled by 8 steel cables attached to winches. The CableRobot has programmable trajectories in 6 dimensions.
We have covered many awesome educational robots here in the past. Maximo is a 5-axis robot arm with a laser-cut acrylic body. It comes with an Arduino board, interchangeable head modules, and high torque servo motors. This robot is capable of performing a wide variety of tasks, including handling screws:
Robots are getting smarter and more sophisticated all the time. They could even have human reflexes in the future. In fact, Researchers from MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering have designed an interface to give humanoid robots human-like reflexes. This allows robots to maintain balance and complete tasks more effectively.
We had the opportunity to cover Microbot Push just a couple of weeks ago. It is a robotic wireless finger for home automation. It can be used to control switches even when you are not around. The below video shows how you can use these robots remotely to push a switch:
Here is a robot that can map your home and clean your floor. The Vorwerk Kobold VR100 Robot Vacuum is a smart gadget that goes room by room to clean the floor. It removes dirt, dust, and pet hair from carpets and hard floors. The Kobold VR100 can be programmed to clean your floors when you are not home.
Robots are going to become more capable in the future. They could even get their own drones. The below video shared by Mark Hoepflinger shows a quadruped that can launch its own quadcopter.
Meet Seek N’ Sneak 2: an Arduino-powered robot that can grab and move objects. It has two driving wheels that are powered using independent motors. It uses two side mounted IR proximity meter for 2D orientation while a third IR proximity meter is used to detect objects. The arm is run by 3 super-strong servo-motors. It can push up to 3 lbs.
