Robot Penguins: Festo does it again

 

Pengiuns sure do seem to be getting a lot of play in recent years. Festo has now targeted them for their latest aquatic and lighter than air robotics. They seem to be doing two versions of these, just like they did with their Robotic Jelly Fish. in their latest promotional video, they show off aquatic penguin robots which use sonar to navigate and communicate, some Mylar, lighter than air penguins reminiscent of that awesome Fin-Fish by LaChLuVe last year, and several other projects involving biomimicry and affordable rapid prototyping.

Update: And more footage of the robotic sea penguins:

Update: PDF file for the bionic aqua penguins with detailed specs, capabilities, and photos.

Don’t Piss Off Crows (mutually beneficial synanthropy)

I’ve always had a great admiration for crows. While other animals retreat from society, or scuttle around at night, crows embrace it and take an interest in finding ways to make the system work for them. I’ve witnessed them just down the street from my home using cars to crack walnuts. Most of the ways they have adapted society to their needs weren’t taught to them by people, they figured it out and taught their friends. 

Joshua Klein has shown himself to be smarter than the average crow, and if this works, the average person, by taking things one step further. He designed a vending machine for crows. They put in a coin, it spits out a peanut. He calls it mutually beneficial synanthropy. In the video (another great TED Talk) Klein explains how the system trains the crows. I don’t think this will be necessary. Once the first few learn how to use it, the whole continent will know in short order. Sure, it starts with picking up loose change they find lying around, but pretty soon you have murders of crows mugging people in dark alleys for their change so they can get their peanut fix. 

The crazy thing about crows is they are smart enough not only to figure out how this works, but also to teach their friends. They are natural pack rats and are attracted to coins anyway. There are a lot of crows in the world, and a lot of loose change. Klein professes an interest in advancing the project to teach crows how to pick up trash or other beneficial tasks, but I’m still back at the vending machine concept. The idea really is brilliant. I wonder what else we could teach them to do?

Yessss….everything will go according to plan…*cackle*

Cajun Crawler: A Segway With Legs

I’ve stated before that Theo Jansen is my favorite artist. This group of University of Louisiana students do him proud. They have taken his specifications for leg design and built them into a way to travel in style. The device was tested and carried a 325 pound rider, and runs off of two 18V hand drill motors, which have a good amount of torque and are convenient to wire in.

I really think the Robot Games need to make this an event. The many legged robot races.

(via Crunchgear)

Not Your Grandpa’s Legos

Legos may have lost some of that box of blocks charm over the years, but they have become a toy that, rather than being left behind as a child, will continue to grow with you. The Mindstorm series of Legos is a serious step into the world of robotics and computer programming.

(via GeeksAreSexy)

See also:

Mindstorm Madness

Robots Playing Soccer (Football?)

If Rubik’s Cubes decided to take up sports, this is what you would get. The rules of the game specify a maximum size for the bots and set some ground rules for fair play. If they could simplify the programming interface, add some players, and sell these as a set I think they would make for a great upgrade for the old Foosball table.

Spontaneous Walkway

He obviously needs a couple more robots in order to be able to walk at a reasonable pace, but I love the concept and the execution, although I’d coat the top of mine with moss and walk barefoot everywhere I went. I can’t help but think of Magneto in the X-Men movie, making himself a walkway out of the iron he he stole from the blood of his captors.

I see potential applications as tour guides. If the bots knew the way, they could provide directions and information, or split off as people change their destinations, all the while conveying people at their own pace. Follow the yellow brick road.

The CirculaFloor was originally designed for use in those virtual reality headsets, so you could be in a small room and walk around a large environment. The stones track your feet and counter your movement. I would imagine this would screw with your balance though, especially when you are essentially blindfolded.

(via CrunchGear)

Vanishing Point Navigation

This  laptop rides a Roomba around and looks for straight lines. By triangulating their convergence, the little droid is able to navigate endless hallways, blasting zombies with its on-board shotgun…well, maybe in the next model.

This may not be a likely standalone navigation system, but combined with those systems used by things like the robotic rats, and maybe some GPS, we could have these things zipping around our hallways doing errands and causing accidents in the very near future.

AtomPunk Evolution

This is an awesome German Saturn commercial full of AtomPunk Dinosaurs. What a fun project this must have been.

Robot Rats Run Rampant!

Geeks around the world are hard at work building and training robotic rats to run mazes. No doubt we will soon have sewers infested with faster, smarter robo-rodents. At least they don’t breed…yet.

This first video is a well designed little rodent. It moves at a good pace, seeking the open section at the center of the maze (they really need some virtual cheese here). Once it finds the center, if remembers the course, calculates the best route out, and  picks up the pace.

This is a much faster one. It moves a lot more like the real thing: light on its feet and quick, but with none of the pausing to wash its face. Another one uses a vacuum to hold itself down so it doesn’t skid around the corners.

This one is almost more like a robotic gopher. It has to move the obstacles out of the way as it goes. Complicating this is that it has to make it back out of the maze and can choose where to drop it. It can end up putting the obstacle in its way further down the line, so it requires planning to win this race.

Update: The below insight into the micromouse brain was found on a page about micromouse code

Update: The above video starts out slow, but culminates in a mouse doing a 5 second race through the maze. About the only thing they could do to make these little guys faster is give them rocket powered roller skates.

Pneumatic Muscles

 

Instructables has a good tutorial up on how to make pneumatic muscles out of latex tubing and a braided sleeve. They work a bit like that extendable fist cartoon characters are so fond of. The latex expands and forces the lattice of the braided tube to turn the length into width, while preventing the latex tube from rupturing. They can be cheaply made out of readily available materials, and can lift 400 times their own weight. It occurs to me that since the air doesn’t have to be lost in order to flex the muscle, a closed system with an air bulb might be used to remove the requirement for an air compressor. It would also provide the potential for a certain amount of tactile feedback on the strain the muscle is under.

« Previous Page — Next Page »