MimeticsCanada

Mimetics Canada is devoted to enhancing STEM education through the use of robots.

[mimeticscanada]

@gizmag @NASAJPL Spiky Hedgehog robots to hop around asteroids and comets

I’m always fascinated by different ways robots can move and the NASA/JPL “Hedgehog” robots (jpl.nasa.gov) use inertia to help them move about in low gravity situations.  What I really liked about the program is the validation testing that was done in low-gravity situations using a “Vomit Comet” aircraft flying in parabolic arcs, as is shown in the video below:

The hurricane twist to get out of craters is quite interesting and this would be an interesting robot to prototype; I imagine that there would be the need for object/light sensors and/or cameras on each face along with a six axis accelerometer and a magnetometer (if there was a magnetic field on the surface being moved about).  You can read more about the program here: gizmag.com

[mimeticscanada]

@3DPrintBoard @3DPrint_com @GordonGWallace Professor Powers Up LEDS With Vegimite

Vegemite (vegemite.com.au) is a spread, the taste of which can best be described as “acquired”, can be used as a conductor in electronic circuits as is discussed in this article (3dprint.com) of some research by Professor Marc in het Panhuis (electromaterials.edu.au) of the University of Wollongong.  

In the video, Vegemite is shown to conduct enough electricity to light an LED on a couple of substrates (glass and bread) - personally, this seems like a very practical application of Vegemite as I simply can’t stand the taste or even the smell of the stuff.  

What they don’t say is what is the conductivity (inverse of resistance) of the Vegemite as well as how much current the condiment can carry.  If we’re going to put Vegemite to good use, we should know what it can do.  

[mimeticscanada]

@Atrapaniebla @gizmag How Chile's fogcatchers are bringing water to the driest desert on Earth

This is definitely not robot related, but I wanted to share this (gizmag.com) as I found it to be an inspiring story - literally pulling water out of the air of somewhere rain simply does not fall and, by doing that, improving people’s lives.  

And that’s not all, an entrepreneur is getting into the action and producing beer made from water that is pulled out of thin air:

The Atrapaniebla brewery is quite modest, but considering that it is located in the driest place on Earth, this is a great example of making lemonade out of lemons.  

[mimeticscanada]

@thingiverse @github @_Laurent_Fr_ W3W-Bot , a Wifi 3-wheeled robot

Here (thingiverse.com) is a nifty three wheeled robot design - the multi-directional castors are a nice touch and something I would like to play around with more - I did one robot using this capability years ago and with more capable processors, I think it could be an interesting platform for a robot.  Along with that, is the use of the esp8266 as a processor/WiFi interface allows for the nice full colour display.  Firmware for the robot can be found here: github.com

Previous versions of the robot hardware can be found here:

thingiverse.com/thing:923605

thingiverse.com/thing:941230

[mimeticscanada]

@thingiverse A bolt together modular tank style robotics platform!

Here’s a great robot platform that will provide you with a great start to creating your own tracked, differentially driven robot or toy: thingiverse.com  What I really liked about it was the library of different parts that are available to the builder and can be optionally integrated into the design.  

I’m not sure about the different track designs included in the Instructable and whether or not they could be printed using something like NinjaFlex to get a softer, better grip on the running surface.  

Great platform for people with a 3D printer (or wanting to have a reason to buy one).

[mimeticscanada]

@instructables @HowStuffWorks Wireless Electricity Transmission

Inductive power coupling is something that has always fascinated me with its possibilities.  As you can see in this Insructable (instructables.com), you can pass power from one coil of wire to another very easily.  howstuffworks.com has a good introduction to this subject.  

The application that I’m always wanting this for is recharging robots - people generally think of placing contacts somewhere the robot can pick it up, but the contacts on the robot can be damaged when running over things or clogged with hair and dirt.  Using a non-contact approach to charging, like this, would be ideal.  

[mimeticscanada]

@engadget @MegaBotsInc @kickstarter Support Team USA in the Giant Robot Duel!

I can’t believe it was only six weeks ago, but I reported on Megabots (megabots.com) Team USA challenge to the Kuratas robot: mimeticscanada.tumblr.com  and their “bring it on” response.  

With that ahead of them, Megabots has created a Kickstarter campaign (kickstarter.com) in which they are looking for at least $500,000 to improve their robot.  You can read more about it here: engadget.com

I didn’t realize that in the original competition, it would be a (bowling ball sized) paintball duel - It seems like Megabots are looking to do more:

@ $500k - Add heavy duty armor plating, Upgrade power unit as well as increase firepower and hydraulics, 

@ $750k - Weapons upgrade with some potentials being:  crushing and grasping claws, pile drivers, shields, pneumatically-driven fists, cannons of all shapes and sizes, and flamethrowers.

@ $1M - Balance Control system because the robot is top heavy.  

@ $1.25M - LIfe safety systems to improve the protection of the operator/pilot.

@ $1.5M - Hollywood, kick-ass paint scheme.  

When I look at the list, it seems like they have their priorities in order.  

Watch the video below and visit the Kickstarter site - right now it’s increasing several contributions per minute (yes, I’ve put in my $50).  

Remember Safety is fourth.

[mimeticscanada]

@SPACEdotcom @michaeldwall @NASAJPL @FastCoDesign @UMassAmherst Gecko Feet Inspire Climbing Space Robots

Some very interesting work is being done at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in terms of replicating the tiny “setae” (or “hairs”) on the bottom of their feet (you can see a greatly magnified image of a gecko’s foot at the bottom of this post).  space.com has an article (video below) discussing the work being done to understand and replicate gecko’s feet along with a good explanation of van der Waals forces.  

When I see toys that run up and down vertical surfaces, they normally employ magnets or air suction and I wondered why there wasn’t any tape or pad products which provides this capability - after a quick Google search, I found this article (fastcodesign.com) and associated video below from 2012 which talks about a prototype tape and what it’s capable of.  

One practical question that I would have in terms of robots (and even geckos) is how do you clean the setae?  I would imagine that dust, hair, flecks of paint, etc. would get attached to the surface and there would be some need to remove them else the surface area will be reduced to the point where the gripper is useless.  

Any ideas?

[mimeticscanada]

@gizmag @MIT Beerbots demonstrate robotic collaboration

I’ve always found the concept of a “swarm” of robots to be more fun to watch rather than being an approach capable of providing useful work.  It seems like the effort in polling all the robots around the current one and determining the next action to be wasteful in terms of computing power (as well as robot design and software development) - it also doesn’t account for situations where more than one task is to be carried out.  I always felt that a minimal number of robots working collaboratively would be a much more effect way of completing a singular or multiple tasks. 

MIT (mit.edu) is working on the problem of having robots collaborate on an unexpected task - bar tending and refreshment delivery with their beerbots.  Rather than being something that is just a cute way to gain headlines for the robotics lab, the work being done here is very sophisticated and quite impressive.  You can read more about it here (gizmag.com), read the paper that was generated from it (roboticsproceedings.org) and see the movie:

The robots are designed to work in a world of uncertainty, much like human bar tenders and servers need to.  

In the Futurama universe, these problems have all been solved.  

[mimeticscanada]

@make @Rafe 6 Life Lessons from Robot Combat

I’m usually not a big fan of life lessons learned by observing something totally unrelated, but I thought this article (makezine.com) was quite good, potentially helpful with some fun videos to help make the point.  

In case you’re wondering, the six lessons are:

ALWAYS HAVE A WAY TO FLIP YOURSELF BACK OVER 

CARRY SPARE PARTS, OR KNOW HOW TO MAKE THEM 

SHAKE HANDS WHEN THE MATCH IS OVER 

ADAPT 

AN UNBALANCED WEAPON CAN HARM YOU MORE THAN YOUR OPPONENT 

DON’T LOSE SIGHT OF THE WORLD WHILE FOCUSING ON AN OPPONENT  

Maybe the rules are best for violent confrontations, but I thought they were well suited to life and dealing with the problems that come your way.  

[mimeticscanada]

@Tech_Insider @engadget @IEEESpectrum Scientists are teaching robots to avoid children

If you are interested in robotics, chances are you’ve seen a number of the following articles (techinsider.io, engadget.com, spectrum.ieee.org) in which Japanese researchers discovered that children, especially in groups, can be physically abusive to the robots.  Going further, they have developed algorithms in which robots attempt to avoid groups of children (where the abuse is most likely) or move towards adults (who’s presence reduces the chance for abuse).  You can see their work in the following video.  

You can read the paper on the study here: rikou.ryukoku.ac.jp

We have not seen cases of actual abuse with the Jade Robot in our programs (where there are lots of kids), however, I would think that the probability of it happening is low because there are a number of adults around and, I suspect, that our “Rule One - Robots Must Run on the Floor” helps set out some ground rules.  

This reminds me of the stories about people who dress up in character costumes at theme parks and how children will abuse them - apparently, by far, the worst situation to be in is to be walking around in a pig costume.  Unfortunately, danger pay doesn’t come with the job and costume.  

[mimeticscanada]

@gizmag @_Solenica_ Lucy mirror brings natural light into your home

Here’s an interesting device that is designed to help bring in more natural light into a room or home.  “Lucy”, produced by Solenica (preorderlucy.com), is a freely rotating mirror that is set to illuminate one portion of a room (a ceiling, I presume, as you wouldn’t want light shining in your eyes) by following the sun.  Appropriately, it is powered by solar cells so you don’t have to run a power line or replace batteries in the device.  You can read more about it here: gizmag.com

While being an interesting product and one that I can see the value of, I can’t say that I’m delighted with it’s physical design; it comes across as something from the early 1960s and I can’t see it being an attractive addition to a home.  

A question I have, what happens on a cloudy/rainy day?  Maybe this is something that is best for somewhere like Southern California.  

This begs the question, what would make something that performs this function attractive?  How about a number of small, square reflectors that could be the top part of a railing?  The function provided here is really not something that lends itself to attractive designs that don’t shine in people’s eyes (as reflectors mounted in a railing would).

Questions and criticisms aside, this is an interesting concept and maybe it can help spur other ideas for improving lighting in the home.  

Along with providing more natural light, Solenica claims that Lucy can reduce a user’s carbon footprint by one ton.  

[mimeticscanada]

@HotHardware @slashdot @IEEESpectrum MIT Researchers Develop 'Real Steel' Robot With Human-Like Reflexes

It’s unfortunate that when a robot like MIT’s HERMES (hothardware.com) is described, we reference it culturally with the “Reel Steel”, “Pacific Rim” and, I would think, “Ironman” movies.  Looking at these movies, we become conditioned to think of robots like this as only being destructive and used as a weapon, whereas I could see it becoming a useful tool being able to go where humans can’t much more efficiently than the current crop of bomb-disposal/rescue robots could go.  

There was quite a spirited debate on hardware.slashdot.org as to whether or not this is a “robot”.  My vote is that HERMES could be considered a robot because he meets the following criteria:

It is able to perform different tasks.

It uses sensors to as part of the movement process.

It has three or more degrees of freedom.  

In the video below, you can see that the sensors allow HERMES to move in a very lifelike way - this is a real breakthrough compared to other exo-skeleton robots that I’ve seen.  

In the video, the researchers repeatedly said that they wanted to put a human’s brain inside a robot - well, we all know how well that will worked out when Mr. Burns tried it:  

[mimeticscanada]

@instructables @ufunk_en Amazing 3D Projection Pyramid in 10 min from Clear Plastic Sheet !

Today is something of an overcast and crappy day so I wanted to do a small craft with my daughter - this do-it-yourself Hologram display (instructables.com/) really does the trick.  I found an old sheet of clear presentation plastic, cut it out according to the .pdf included in the Instructable, jumped to some hologram YouTube videos (some below) and voila!  It’s quite amazing.  

Along with the instructables, you can follow the directions here (ufunk.net) and cut up an old CD case.  Personally, I found that cutting the sheets of plastic with a pair of scissors to work very well.  

Below are some hologram videos that you can use with your smartphone.

[mimeticscanada]

@IEEESpectrum @UW Simple 3D Printed Grip Makes Household Robots a Little More Realistic

Thirty years ago, when I was involved in robotic assembly of computer terminals, one of the things we discovered was that if you make things easier for robots, they become a lot easier for humans; you end up with a changing cost comparison between robots and humans for the same task with it becoming much more difficult to end up with a compelling business case to use robots for the task.  

In reading this article (spectrum.ieee.org) showing how a 3D printed gripper could be created to provide robots with an easy to use, standard handle, I was struck by how the result actually made things worse for humans - a step backwards from where we were before.  Looking at it, I would think the next step would be a standard for various articles so they can be used equally well by humans as well as robots - I don’t know how much of a market there is right now for a “robot ready” feather duster or whisk or broom, but it is something that should be explored as it may be an important selling point in the future.  

Fortunately, we have 3D printing, which allows the creation and testing of different concepts fairly cheaply and easily.  

[mimeticscanada]

@gizmag @gehnuclear GE atomic swimmer “robot” keeps tabs on nuclear reactors

gizmag.com has an interesting article about the GE Hitachi Nuclear Reactor inspection device (nuclear.gepower.com).  The “Stinger” is used for inspecting the interiors of nuclear reactors with remote operators and being much less invasive, minimizing the impact to refueling operations.  I’m surprised that something like this hasn’t been in use for 50 years or more.  

Video Here: brightcove.com

The reason why I’m blogging about the Stinger is because Gizmag calls it a “robot” and, anybody that has been in one of my workshops, would know that a “robot” is differentiated from a “machine” by two characteristics:

A robot can be used for multiple tasks whereas a machine can only perform one.  

A robot uses sensors to determine what would be the correct course of action. 

The reason why I bring these points up is because I didn’t feel like the Stinger meets either of these requirements to be called a “robot”.  What is interesting is that if you look at the GEnuclear website and video, you will see that the “Stinger” is referred to as a “tool” and not a “robot”, like Gizmag does.  

[mimeticscanada]

@3DPrint_com @thingiverse This 3D Printed Sentry Rubber Band Gun

Here’s (thingiverse.com) a fun project that looks like it would be fairly easy to build if you had a 3D printer and some spare time.  Electronically, the project consists of three servos that are driven by an Arduino.  3dprint.com/ has more about this project.  

While quite a nice project, I would like to see something which could detect objects/movement and fire in that direction.  It seems that this sentry requires somebody to control its movements.  Ideally, this would use a camera, but you could get some interesting operation with a sonar (or other type) of rangefinder (you have to account for rubber band drop over distance).  

Still, a great projec and one that would be a lot of fun.