The Independent newspaper in the UK has claimed that car manufacturer Volkswagen actively suppressed academic research that shows a flaw in the security system it and other manufacturers use to immobilize their vehicles. The paper claims three university researchers from the UK and Holland were prevented from publishing their analysis of the built-in security system that...
Being a roboticist is often a thankless task, you spend hours coding every minute movement your robot can make and yet still it mightn’t move the way you want. Researchers have experimented with many techniques to both speed up and improve the process, including using motion capture. Well now a team from MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering is using this approach, ...
There has been a lot of talk about driverless cars over the last few years, Google is just one of the large players to have stoked the flames of interest on this topic. The tech-giant made an announcement last summer that it was to begin a limited production of a two-seater autonomous vehicle. More traditional vehicle manufacturers Audi and Daimler have since brought out...
The global fame of the Netherlands in the area of 3D printing has combined with its capital’s recognition for bridges in a collaboration by Heijmans, MX3D, and Joris Laarman Lab. The first-of-its-kind project aims to create a 3D printed steel pedestrian bridge that will span one of Amsterdam’s historic canals, though the exact location has not yet been made public. Plan...
New Zealand Martin Aircraft Company has announced the release of its redesigned Martin Jetpack, available mid-2014. Based on the P12 prototype, they managed to boost the performance in terms of the aircraft’s maneuverability. It can reach a speed of 74 kph and a height of 900 m, remain airborne for 30 minutes and travel for 20 miles. Before being available to the g...
Please let us introduce you to FUTEK’s highly popular device, the Miniature S-Beam Jr. Load Cell (LSB200), capable of measuring both tensile and compression forces. Extremely positive feedback has been given regarding its format, broad capacity field (from 10g to 100lb), no-risk lifetime warranty and availability. The LSB200 is the lifeline for The Robot Studio’s biomime...
Californian lifeguards are using a mid-range UAV from Phantom to search out sharks in the vicinity of Seal Beach, Orange County, US. It used to take lifeguards up to several hours a day to confirm shark sightings, this involved sending personnel out on jet skis to roam the coastline. Now, Seal Beach Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey sends up his Phantom drone, which can hov...
We covered the recent Darpa Robotics Challenge during the week, Team Kaist from South Korea finished first in an impressive time of 44 minutes and 28 seconds, scooping the USD$2m in prize money. This contest was somewhat unique in that the robots were completely untethered. The robots’ efforts to navigate the obstacle course led to some spills and tumbles as they climbed...
A team from South Korea has won the Darpa Robotics Challenge. The competition involves a type of robot obstacle course which is designed to replicate conditions similar to the disaster zone that followed the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant catastrophe. Team Kaist’s DRC Hubo bipedal robot finished faster than the other 22 competitors to claim the top prize of USD$2m from the...
The UK Department of Transport has just announced that driverless cars will be allowed to drive on public roads as part of a trial in four British cities. The prototypes which look somewhat like golf-carts will be appearing on the streets of Milton Keynes, Greenwich, Bristol and Coventry in time for the summer. The British government wants the UK to become a leader in th...
Unmanned vehicles and aircraft are steadily making the crossover from the lab into real environments. As these machines increase in sophistication it is only matter of course that they will begin to communicate with each other to complete joint tasks. The video below demonstrates a way to autonomously coordinate the landing of a UAV on top of a movable landing pad. The r...
Watch this fascinating video of the “world’s largest robotic swarm.” The swarm was created using 1,024 small robots called Kilobots, which are each equipped with an onboard microcontroller, infrared sensors and transmitters for communication and motors that permit them to move straight or turn left or right. The swarm was able to form 2D shapes like stars and also to spe...
3D printing is much talked about in the press, we regularly come across a whole range of non-industry news articles that often lurch from one extreme to the other: either 3D printing is the future of manufacturing or a specialist technology that is only useful for creating prototypes and demonstration models. But outside of all the hype we are seeing real-world applicati...
Researchers at Microsoft have demonstrated that using software to actively control a number of smaller batteries, with different chemical compositions, could increase the lifespan of devices. Typically, today’s batteries have one particular chemical design that controls how fast they charge and discharge. Engineers at Microsoft have instead opted to use multiple, smaller...
When compared to many animals, human babies are surprisingly vulnerable in their first months, however they do have a high capacity for self-learning and are able to master a variety of skills within their first year. Something as basic as a child learning how to pick up toys that are a range of shapes and sizes is in fact an impressive feat. Now researchers have observe...
Earlier this year we covered the UK Department of Transport’s decision to permit driverless cars on specific British roads. Manufacturer RDM Group has now delivered the autonomous vehicles to Oxford University’s Mobile Robotics Group (MRG) to start the installation of the pod’s autonomous control system (ACS). The electric-powered LUTZ Pathfinder pod was briefly unveiled...
Battelle, a research institute located around the world but headquartered in Ohio, US, has successfully tested its anti-icing system for aircraft in a leading wind tunnel facility. The carbon nanotube-base HeatCoat system is reportedly lighter and less power hungry than existing systems. Designed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), although applicable to larger commercia...
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US has released its proposed guidelines for regulating commercial drone use. The news comes in the wake of the FAA’s agreement with CNN, which will allow the network to legally experiment with UAVs in producing video content. CNN’s deal was just one of several waivers the FAA granted to select companies. The new guidelines...
US media group CNN has signed an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which could open up the skies to a an era of newsgathering drones. The new intitiative will permit CNN to legally experiment with UAVs in producing video content. The initiative will also allow the US government agency to gather information which will inform its policy on drones. Cu...
Exoskeleton aids for workers are starting to move into the workplace. Last year, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering tested robotic exoskeletons that give the wearer enhanced strength. Much of the work at the Daewoo shipyards is already carried out by robots, and now after the successful trial, the company has opted to outfit its staff with the suits on a more per...
Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion comedy franchise. The series centres on Wallace, an absent-minded inventor and cheese enthusiast, along with his companion Gromit, a silent yet intelligent anthropomorphic dog. Because of their widespread popularity, the characters have been described as positive international icons of both modern British culture in particular ...
MatterFab a metal 3D printing start-up in the US is developing a low-cost metal 3D printer. The company envisages it will be able to produce a 3D printer that is an order of magnitude cheaper than current metal printers, which typically range from the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. CEO and co-founder Matt Burris came upon the idea for a low-cost printer from s...
Back in May, we wrote about 3D printed houses in China, which used printers larger than the house itself. Well we’ve found their kid brothers! Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, IAAC, in Barcelona have created small but mobile 3D printer robots. The robots nicknamed “Minibuilders” are capable of constructing entire structures from the...
Robotics and rock and roll just seem to go together; we’ve covered a robotic rock band before, and drummer Jason Barnes is another great example of robotics working its way simultaneously into both prosthetics and music. Following amputation of his arm, with the help of Georgia Institute of Technology’s Gil Weinberg, Barnes received a prosthetic bionic arm with a third s...
In 1983, Charles W. (Chuck) Hull began a revolution: he invented stereolithography. This innovation single-handedly ushered in the era of rapid prototyping, and set the stage for 31 years of market leadership. Learn more about 3D Systems’ fundamental contributions to the industry here.
The robotic arm is moving beyond the factory floor and is now found in unexpected places, like for instance, on a kitchen counter. We are of course not talking about ABB’s or KUKA’s enormous beasts, but the open source, affordable and miniature robotic uArm. Essentially a miniaturized version of the ABB PalletPack IRB460, the 4-axis parallel-mechanism robot arm runs o...
Car lovers and engineers-to-be will adore this news! Swedish Daniel Norée made his a surprising mission: to design a remote control truggy – a cross between a monster truck and a buggy – using a 3D printer. And guess what? He succeed in doing so with TopSolid 7! Daniel Norée built all the parts composing the truggy with the new generation of CAD/CAM solution. He firs...
As much as any of us might like taking a dip in the pool, there are certain places it’s better not to go swimming, like a nuclear reactor. But like any municipal swimming pool, the large pool used to moderate the temperature of nuclear reactions needs to be routinely inspected and cleaned. Currently, this hazardous task is carried out by a team of eight or so people usin...
The Copenhagen Wheel by Superpedestrian, Inc. is the world’s most powerful automated bicycle-propulsion device. Assaf Biderman, Founder of Superpedestrian, says that the bike “needs to be rugged, but it also needs to look and feel great.” A robot, but also a vehicle, the wheel is human-controlled, employing a powerful new drivetrain, power train and control system. Custo...
Bruker has just released its new family of Contour Elite 3D Optical Microscopes, which are breaking the mold by fully integrating high-definition microscopy imaging with industry-leading three-dimensional (3D) optical metrology functionality. This latest edition of Bruker interferometric optical technology provides the high-speed operation and accuracy required by top-le...
Do you remember the futuristic computer user interface that Tom Cruise uses in Minority Report? Well now the guy who collaborated on that film and Iron Man has gone and made this interface a reality (well almost). John Underkoffler was recruited by Steven Spielberg to give the workspace in Minority Report a truly futuristic feel, and turned ideas developed at MIT’s Media...
Jeffery Greenblatt and Samveg Saxena, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, concluded in a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change that automated taxis could produce per-mile emissions between 87 and 94 percent lower than today’s average car. This is based on the assumption that self-driving taxis would be electrified as well as...
The Red Dot Gala, the culmination of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015 was held on June 29th in Essen, Germany. International design experts, manufacturers and media representatives convened at the Aalto-Theater in Essen to celebrate the best products of the year. This year’s Red Dot: Design Team of the Year award went to Robert Sachon & Bosch Home Appliances Design...
The video below shows an interactive installation by design studio Kram/Weisshaar that explores the finesse of the Kuka robot as it demonstrates poise and control whilst sculpting furniture from foam. The robot is remotely controlled using a dedicated app and the designers put all the power in the hands of the 2,000 individuals that signed up to project Robochop. The res...
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has released video of tests conducted in August that showed a small group of “drone” boats swarming a hostile vessel that posed a threat to a US Navy ship. The drone boats are controlled by a system called Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS), a transferable kit consisting of a sensor and advanced softwar...
Scientists at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France have for the first time captured 3D images of Archaeopteryx, an ancient feathered dinosaur. The mystery surrounding the pint-sized dinosaur’s place in the evolution of dinosaurs into birds, has fascinated scientists since Darwin’s time. It is hoped these new images, captured with a ve...
