Tech – Page 14 – NerdBeach

Nokia Jeppe robot hopes to make telepresence convenient and easy

Nokia's Jeppe is a remotely controlled robot that seeks to bring the telepresence experience to the average person. The little robot can be controlled by a Nokia cell phone (naturally), and it has an onboard digital compass along with sound sensors in order to locate people to speak with.

One thing I do not like about the zippy little bot is that the video is at a fixed angle, which from the video could make it easy to get the bot hung up on something without being able to see what it is. But the almost creepy smile on its face – hate to say it, but I think I like it, since the ideal is to make it friendly. It would almost force a pleasant conversation – how are you going to argue with that smile?

I have no doubt that such a similar device will become commonplace in the near future – telepresence saves time, money and resources. So the first few devices will probably get a nod in history footnotes – and what a smile to have looking back from the archives.

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Robotic Clock is Entertaining Overkill but Fun

Greg Chaffins

Nerd Beach has shown a great deal of unique clocks, but this is a rather curious one – it is a clock project that uses a robotic arm to set up number cards which then display the current time.

The Stonehenge Robotic Digital Clock (so named for the semi-circular arrangement of the numbers), by Steve Norris , uses a robotic arm to re-arrange a set of 14 cards. The cards are made of a simple foam core but use embedded magnets to aid in positioning.

The arm is not the fastest means of keeping the time updated (taking almost 50 seconds to change the minute value in the video above). As it is I assume that the software compensates for when more than one number needs to be updated for a time change (such as from 12:59 to 01:00 ). But for aesthetic and entertainment purposes I really like the project, makes me want to build my own. And that is probably a good indicator of an interesting project.

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Robotic Buoy Can Help Track Oil Spills

Greg Chaffins

Osaka University has developed a robotic buoy prototype that is designed to help in the case of a large scale environmental disaster such as an oil spill. The prototype, called SOTAB (Spilled Oil Tracking Autonomous Buoy), is a 110kg GPS-equipped robot measuring 2.7m long with a diameter of 27cm.

The concept is to have the buoys installed on an oil tanker, and in the event of an accident the buoys are automatically deployed. The designer, Naomi Kato, professor of submersible robotic engineering at the Department of Naval Architecture at Osaka University, Japan, states that the buoy will,

conduct education and research on underwater robotics, biomechanics on aquatic animals and its application to engineering, computational hydrodynamics of viscous flow fields

Basically the robot will submerge to a depth of about 10m and use four very sensitive on-board cameras to track the spill above it. The device has its own lighting in order to track the spill at night or in adverse conditions, and it will also track:

water current speed
water temperature
wind direction
wind velocity

This information, along with the GPS data, will allow the robot to tell both where the oil spill is and where it is heading. The project is currently in development, but it is hoped that units can be deployed in the field within three years.

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Robotrac is at Home Down on the Farm

Greg Chaffins

Hannes Seeberg, and industrial designer from Estonia, has designed a robot that is at home down on the farm. Called the Robotrac, short for robotic tractor, the robot is a fully programmable farmhand that can help out in a myriad of ways, including:

Tilling
Plowing
Disking
Planting
Harrowing
Spraying
Weeding
and more

The unit was designed to be helpful while maintaining a relatively smaller size to allow access to the crops without being destructive. From everything we can determine it is still a concept robot at this point, but it could prove to be a great tool for a farmer if and when it hits production.

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