Fuck yeah, robotics!

A tumblr for real robots 0011 1010 0100 0100

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DARPA LS3s frolicking in a field.

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i laughed myself into hysterics the first time i saw this

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Flying robots build structure

By David Pescovitz at 9:50 am Monday, Dec 5

ETH Zurich roboticist Raffaello D’Andrea is collaborating with architects on a new building construction technique using flying robots. Their demonstration installation, Flight Assemebled Architecture, has just opened at the FRAC Centre in Orléans, France. Four autonomous quadcopter robots retrieve foam bricks and then a networked computer vision system directs their placement. The installation consists of more than 1,500 bricks and is a 1:100 model of what the architects Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler call a “vertical village.”

The robots fly autonomously, but they get help from the environment: The ceiling of the room where the assembly is taking place was equipped with a motion-capture system. A computer uses the vision data to keep track of the quadcopters and tell them where to go…

When a robot’s battery runs low, it automatically lands on a charger and a new quad rotor takes its place. The assembly is happening at a pace of 100 bricks per hour on average, D’Andrea says. Glue on the bottom of the bricks keeps them in place (the installation will become part of FRAC’s permanent collection).

“Watch Flying Robots Build a 6-Meter Tower“ (IEEE Spectrum)

Flying Machine Enabled Construction (ETH)

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SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. Another brilliant project by Festo.

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Light paintings created by long exposure photography of Roomba vacuum cleaner robots who have  been outfitted with coloured LEDs and set free to roam. More here.

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tattooedupbreakingdown:

Oh, you know. Just watching videos about advancements in robotics. No biggie

Wow. Just. wow.

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DARwIn-OP (Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence - Open Platform) is an affordable, miniature-humanoid-robot platform with advance computational power, sophisticated sensors, high payload capacity, and dynamic motion ability to enable many exciting research, education, and outreach activities. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States, DARwIn-OP has been developed by RoMeLa at Virginia Tech with collaboration with University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University and Robotis Co., based on the award winning DARwIn series humanoid robots in development since 2004.

Click on the image to be taken to the RoMeLa website for more amazing robotics projects.

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Dancing Hexapod Robot made by Matt Bunting, built for a class in cognitive robotics at the University of Arizona.

More info and and an interview with Matt here.

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Dennis Hong introduces seven award-winnning, all-terrain robots -- like the humanoid, soccer-playing DARwIn and the cliff-gripping CLIMBeR -- all built by his team at RoMeLa, Virginia Tech. Watch to the end to hear the five creative secrets to his lab's incredible technical success.

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[fuckyeahrobotics-blog]

8bitfuture:

Robot climbs walls without touching them.

A New Zealand team has built a robot capable of moving over walls or ceilings without touching the surface. The nanotechnology design of the robots round grippers allows air to be passed around them at a speed three times faster than the speed of sound.

The increase in air speed creates a loss in air pressure - in this case such a strong loss that a small area of vacuum is created, ‘sucking’ the robot close to the wall. The change in air pressure with a change in air speed is known as Bernoulli’s Theorem, which is the same principle that allows aircraft wings to generate lift.

The robot is capable of lifting 500g, with the inventors expecting uses in structural inspections of buildings, among other things.

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revolvingandevolving:

Who needs A-Rod when you could have a cool Swedish flying robot to play catch with?

A Swedish lab has developed something called the “Flying Machine Arena,” in which these robots can fly around and use overhead motion tracking to juggle balls back and forth. They aren’t human-piloted. Watch the simultaneously creepy/awesome clip of the flying machines in action.

By Kase Wickman

[fuckyeahrobotics-blog]

Festo - Bionic Handling Assistant

Based on an elephant's trunk, this pnumatically-actuated robot arm is seen as having a future on production lines. It's already been nominated for a Deutscher Zukunftspreis (German Future Award) and is being developed in three sizes to handle objects from hazelnut to grapefruit-size.

I have to say I rather like this company and its bio-inspired robots. I caught their air-penguin at a gig in London last year and was quite impressed. Their site (or a quick google of 'festo') will give you a whole range of interesting robotics projects.

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chrispetescia:

Holy shit-

Amputee Patrick demonstrates his new worlds first bionic hand - BBC

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Robonaut 2 (or R2!) is a prototype robotic helper on board the International Space Station. The $2.5 million space bot consists of a head and torso, along with a pair of dexterous arms. Its head houses five cameras — including one infrared camera in the mouth — to provide stereo vision and depth perception. The torso contains 38 PowerPC processors, and R2 carries a backpack that can be filled with batteries or a power conversion system. Click here for an infographic giving more information on R2, and here for an article giving an overview of the bot and its and possible future future uses.

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This pipe-crawler robot was built as part of a senior year engineering project at Florida Atlantic University. Pipe crawlers are a popular area in robotics, probably because piping is so widely used in industry and provides is a classic example of a restricted environment when it comes to maintenence or inspection.

The nice thing about this robot is that it can climb vertically, as well as maneuver around corners and through horizontal sections of pipe. Compared to a lot of senior projects I've seen this one shoots pretty high. The creators' website gives more information about the 'bot and an entertaining account of its development.

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xges:

This guy makes incredible Lego robots!

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A simple and elegant example of robots as interactive art. These 'Wallbots' have magnetic wheels that allow them to climb walls, and can each be programmed with a different 'personality', indicated by the colour of its light. Red robots move quickly, going towards objects (such as human hands or other robots); green robots move more slowly, turning away from objects, and yellow robots move the slowest,  stopping completely when motion or objects are detected.

On her instructables site the creator says:

"In the future I plan to build in more complex, autonomous behaviors. I will use these robots to engage people in public spaces such as elevators or hallways. In doing so, I hope to facilitate creative interaction between people and technology in mundane, everyday settings."

I look forward to seeing them.