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HERMES - Axe-Wielding Telepresence Robot

We covered the HERMES robot / telepresence interface by MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in August 2015. Here’s an update on the robot with human reflexes, swinging an axe, punching holes in plasterboard and breaking a piece of wood like a pro. The HERMES System will be part of the 2015 UAE Robots for Good Competition.

Guess we have to talk about remotely piloted vehicles / transport units in general, surrogates from scifi movies/books (I read John Scalzi’s police procedural novel “Lock In” a few weeks ago: delightful & entertaining) and telepresence robots with weapons in particular. The action starts at 2m30s:

[via @gnat]

geometrymatters

A Proposed International Flag for the Planet Earth

The International Flag of Planet Earth is a design proposal by Oskar Pernefeldt for a planetary flag. It was created as a graduation project at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden.

Pernefeldt used the principles of vexillology, the scientific study of flags, to create a meaningful design representing the water and life on our planet. The shade of blue was chosen to stand out against the black of space and the white of a spacesuit, and the interconnected rings form a flower to represent life on Earth and how it is intertwined.

The design follows the five basic principles of good flag design that were recently laid out in a TED talk by radio producer Roman Mars, with the arguable exception of the ring design being too complex.

Pernefeldt’s design process for the flag is discussed in a video that was included as part of Pernefeldt’s graduation project.

(laughingsquid,com)

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