robots – Page 4 – NerdBeach

CUGV Robot Checks For Dangerous Substances

Robots are becoming more of a staple in the military, and this is a trend that is unlikely to slow in the near future (well, not at least until Skynet is active). The hazardous material sensing CUGV ("Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Unmanned Ground Vehicle") detects:

ammonia, chlorine, carbon monoxide, oxygen levels, lower explosive limits, volatile organic compounds, gamma radiation rate and dose rate, temperature and humidity

The robot would enter a questionable area first, and it would let the people know when a protective suit is required in the area. The end result is that lives are saved, and the military can do their job more efficiently. In a way, the robot is acting as a modern day canary in a coal mines, with the exception that it lives to sniff (and upgrade) again.

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A Robot That Can Go Shopping For You

Greg Chaffins

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Robots are changing our lives, and one aspect of robotics that is interesting is in telepresence, where you are virtually there thanks to a physical robot that does the action for you remotely. Already we have surgeons that are virtually in the operating room, and it is the opinion of this author that telepresence robotics will have a very significant impact on our daily lives in the future.

Along those lines, we have a robot from Japan that is a virtual presence shopper. Basically it is a robot that can go shopping for you while you control it via cellphone. The robot fights the crowds, digs through the merchandise, pays for it, and brings it home while you stay comfortable at home (or wherever else you happen to be).

The robot is a modified TMSUK-4 humanoid robot that is tied to cellular communications. The concept of telepresence with a communication device is here referred to as 3D communication, and it is an equally apt label to use. You could also refer to the device as a telerobotic shopper.

In the demonstration, an aged lady sent the TMSUK-4 robot and her young granddaughter to a department store in Kitakyushu, Japan. The lady used her NTT DoCoMo video capable cellphone to control the robot and shop through the merchandise. Navigating to the hat section, the robot picked the hats and the granddaughter acted as the hat model. The lady was then able to select a new hat from the physical store without leaving home.

One aspect of telerobotics that could really drive its acceptance is in its ability to allow the user to manage their time very effectively. The virtual presence in a lot of the cases requires no travel time, allowing the user to instantly be at the location. This allows the user to potentially visit many places in a short time (such as a skilled surgeon doing several operations via telerobotics).

Obviously in the case of individual telerobotic ownership, such as the case illustrated above, this would not always be the case, but even then you could do other things while your robotic Doppelganger was en route.

Of course, having a telerobotic device to go the gym for you would not be a good use of the technology, despite the acknowledged short term lack of pain for the user.

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This Robot Plays Air Hockey

Greg Chaffins

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The Nuvation Robot was the winner of the People's Choice Award in the Flexis AC Face-Off. The demonstration featured a robot playing air hockey, and it was using Freescale’s 32-bit ColdFire processor and Flexis AC microcontrollers as its processing unit.

An overhead camera served as the robot's eyes, and it gave the human players a good challenge.

Very cool. Now if only they had two robots to compete against each other. Check out the video below.

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Robotic Fish Work Together

Greg Chaffins

robofish_061008 Robotic fish have been created, and they are working together. Robofish are underwater robots that can,

co-operatively track moving targets underwater, such as groups of whales or spreading plumes of pollution, or explore caves, underneath ice-covered waters, or in dangerous environments where surfacing might not be possible.

The roughly 10 pound salmon-sized devices have fins and propellers to allow movement in water, and they are built to simulate real fish. The intent is to generate bio-inspired systems that perform better than existing engineered systems.

The ideal of using nature inspired solutions and models in order to make robotics work more efficiently in our world makes a lot of since to me, since Nature has done a lot of refinement over the years free for the sampling.

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