This is GE Aerospace’s Sensiworm: an intelligent and sensitive soft robot that can inspect in confined spaces. These mini robots are inspired by inchworms. They can move through curves of jet engine parts to detect cracks or corrosion.
This robot has a soft, stretchable electronic skin. It uses hybrid sensors to detect the health of protective coating on aircraft engines.
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In the past few years, we have covered plenty of powerful robotic lawn mowers here. The SDNATURE ZCG-P03 is designed for commercial landscaping businesses. It can overcome slopes up to 60 degrees. It has two types of blades. It has a mowing width of up to 107cm. It also has remote control up to 800m.
The DeepRobotics X20 robot dog is an agile robot that can perform inspections, open doors, and flip switches, when used with a robotic arm. The company is working on a more advanced version. The X30 is an industrial inspection quadruped robot that can move and climb faster. It will also have advanced add-ons to adapt to adverse environments.
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Robots are going to do a lot of exploration for us on the moon and other planets for the foreseeable future. This video form NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley shows NASA’s moon rover landing practicing Lunar lander exit.
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This is the Husky Observer: an inspection robot designed for dangerous jobs. It has built-in cameras and front/rear driving lights for navigation in challenging environments. It can be controlled via a web browser. This robot relies pan-tilt-zoom camera, front and rear stereo cameras, or 3D LiDAR to complete its job.
This robot has 10kg payload capacity. It has built-in power, Ethernet, and USB connectors. It has a max speed of 2.3mph. It comes with WiFi and LTE connectivity.
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This is the MAKI Pro 2: a desktop size Android that can keep you company. It has animatronic eyes and can perform microsaccades when it sees faces. It has arms each with 4 joints. It uses them for gesture communication. It has a 7-inch touchscreen display and an embedded PC.
Here is a shape changing mobile robot that can expand and collapse its wheels to adapt to challenging terrains. By using tensegrity as wheels, this robot has better shock absorbing capability. As the researchers show, a robot “with two icosahedron tensegrity wheels can reduce its width from 400 mm to 180 mm and simultaneously increase its height from 75 mm to 95 mm by changing the expanded tensegrity wheels to collapsed disk-like ones.”
This robot can overcome steps with heights up to 110mm and 150mm in expanded and collapsed configuration. This robot can jump obstacles up to 300mm.
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Meet the OTTO 1200: a powerful autonomous mobile robot that can move 1200kg of loads. It has a narrow footprint of 910mm, so it can move in tight spaces. It has a rugged, all-metal body with IP54 rating. It has a max speed of 3.4mph. It can reach 10 to 90% of charge after 30 minutes.
Robot vacuums and mops are getting smarter all the time. The Roomba Combo j9+ is a robot vacuum and mop with Dirt Detective function to clean the dirtiest rooms first. It also has a Clean Base Auto-Fill Dock. It comes with 3 suction levels with automatic carpet boost.
Here is a brainless soft robot that can escape mazes. Developed by researchers at NC State University, this robot doesn’t require a brain to get it done. It is made of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), which can shrink over 50% in response to heat and light. This robot can self turn when encountering a wall. The below video shows it in action:
