The 3D recognition that’s going on here is pretty remarkable - not just picking and placing things from set locations, but grabbing objects from a pile and assembling them, is very impressive! For better or worse, you have to imagine that in a few years as these get better and better we’re going to see humans replaced on the factory line altogether.
This is a fantastic cross between art, humor, and practicality. Why just ride around alone when you can have a robot buddy help you along? | Joules
is actually a humanoid-robot-shaped bicycle motor that can be mounted on
the rear seat of a tandem two-seat bicycle, allowing the human occupant
on the front seat to get away with just steering. Obviously you could
just get a powered bicycle but this is intended more as a robot art
project than a practical device. Read more at robots.net |
Now that I’ve begun to play with robotics, one of the biggest challenges is the weight of the parts themselves. It’s hard to move a robotic arm if it’s “hand” is composed of heavy servos.
To get over that hurdle, this team has looked to human anatomy and made “muscles” of kite string on a light plastic skeleton. Very interesting, and very creepily cool looking in the video below. | human movement involves a complex array of muscles and ligaments built on a framework of bone. Try to mimic that with traditional mechanical parts and, at best, you get an unnatural puppet. But now a five-nation team based at the UK’s University of Essex has unveiled the Eccrrobot, an anthropomimetic robot which doesn’t just mimic the human form or human movements, but the biological structures that make it possible. |
Well, animatronic life, but it’s still a non-3d-animated version of the cute little Pixar mascot hopping around the Disney parks. I’m a pretty massive Pixar fan, and would have loved to have seen him when we went down there.
The problem with getting into robotics is that you see stuff like this and think “You know, you could probably make one of those pretty easily…” | Disney buffs are no doubt aware of the theme park’s “Living Character Initiative,” where guests of Walt Disney World (and the surrounding parks, like Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot Center) are treated to a live-action experience with some of the more memorable Disney/Pixar animated characters. |
There is no achievement in robotics so great that it can’t be summed up into the single question “Yes, but can it get me a beer?”
Indeed, this one can. I have a feeling this little segway-esque guy will be teetering around Roboexotica next year, serving up tasty drinks. | The natural comparison is to a Segway, but this is a full-fledged robot, capable of cruising around under remote control and, soon, following you around by voice, meaning a fresh and precisely balanced mohito may soon be just a word away.Read more at www.engadget.com |
I have no idea why this needs to be a humaniod looking robot, but I when it’s this cute, who’s to argue? Ninomiya-kun, a robot built by Japan’s Waseda University (along with a few of the country’s other technical institutes), is loaded with character recognition software that allows its camera-eyes to pick out consecutive words on a page and read them out loud in sequence. The end result? It can read books. Read more at dvice.com |
This cute little robot is a very simple example of AI - the bot reacts to it’s environment and exhibits behaviors accordingly. Built on an ardunio mini pro and breadboard with some servos, we might just have to start building these little guys at Resistor! | The Braitenberg vehicles, an idea developed by cyberneticist Valentino Braitenberg, are autonomous vehicles that move around using wheels and light sensors connected to them. |
| These vehicles can exhibit various types of behavior, similar to “aggression” or even “love”. Yes, that’s right, this is a tiny car that loves light. |
There’s really nothing a specifically designed robot can’t do… I’ve really got to dust off the servos from that robot arm Bre and I put together and see what else we can dream up, especially now that we’ve got Makerbots that we can print parts on!
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Merry Christmas! Here’s some geeky christmas art to brighten your day!
