Robotics
Robosapien to get much smarter very soon
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March 23, 2006 To say we think WowWee Robotics has played a pioneering role in the first wave of the consumer robotics revolution is an understatement. Twenty five years from now when the consumer robotics industry is expected to rival the automotive industry in size, Wowwee’s diminutive Robosapien will be seen in the same light as the Model T Ford and the company’s high tech Geppetto, Mark Tilden (pictured with two roboraptors), could well be held in even higher esteem. The price of the company’s “toy” robots belie their capabilities and Robosapien V1 and V2, Roboraptor et al have functionality for which the company could legitimately ask ten times the price – the bargain pricing though has resulted in millions of Wowwee robots being the first to invade the home. The big news is that overnight Evolution Robotics and WowWee announced a strategic alliance to integrate Evolution's ViPR and Northstar technologies into WowWee products. ViPR (Visual Pattern Recognition) provides reliable and fast recognition of patterns, objects, and locations in realistic environments. Northstar, known as "Indoor GPS," is the world's lowest-cost solution for position-awareness for consumer robots, and enables robots to navigate autonomously and intelligently.
Raven UAV achieves milestones and wins the Commando Olympics
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March 15, 2006 After the incredible response to yesterday’s story on weaponised micro unmanned aerial vehicles, it is interesting to note AeroVironment’s significant production milestone of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) systems that was announced today. The Raven (RQ-11A), a manpackable SUAV used by the U.S. Army and Special Forces since 2002, has surpassed the 3,000th air vehicle mark for production. The Raven is a 4.2 pound, hand-launched sensor platform that provides day and night, near-real-time video imagery for "over the hill" intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in support of a ground commander. Made of Kevlar and costing US$25,000, it has a range of 80 minutes at up to 90 km/h and can venture up to 15 kilometres from its controller. No greater praise can be given than by those who use the Raven and this can be evidenced at the always excellent military website StrategyPage which reports that the Raven is winning what it terms the unofficial “Commando Olympics.” StrategyPage reports that in addition to the cooperation between the commando units of over a dozen countries assembled to pursue Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, there’s a lot of comparing notes – and the most envied high tech gadget of them all is the Raven. Read More
Robotic bartender understands verbal orders and tells jokes
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March 12, 2006 If there was a list of professions least likely to see humans replaced by machines, the barkeeper would logically be on that list. But students in the final year of a computational linguistics and phonetics course at the University of Saarland in Germany have created a robotic bartender to demonstrate how digital language technologies can be combined with robotics. The robotic Barkeeper understands natural language and hence takes orders in exactly the same way as a normal bartender. It has a database of cocktail recipes, and will propose drinks to the customer at the beginning of the conversation. The user can then choose any cocktail by spoken commands, or create their own cocktail by choosing the ingredients. Then while it is making the drinks, it keeps the customers entertained by telling jokes. The Barkeeper has an extensive jokes database, with additional specific jokes about each cocktail and each ingredient.When it serves the drink, it also explains to the customer exactly what the alcoholic content is. Read More
The world's most advanced quadruped robot
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March 4, 2006 Boston Dynamics has released images and details of BigDog, which it is billing as the most advanced quadruped robot on earth. If that seems like a tall claim, check out this video of BigDog (Caution 27MB WMV) doing its thing by walking over uneven ground, up slopes, over piles of rocks, snow, through water etcetera – though clearly still in development, BigDog is incredibly impressive and we challenge anybody to view the movie and not see BigDog’s future potential as a perfectly-mannered mechanical pony for children, as an all-terrain four-legged “wheelchair” that can take a 90-year-old for a walk over an orienteering course or a mechanical mule to carry all your camping gear into the middle of the wilderness or … much, much more. In short, BigDog is a quadruped robot the size of a small horse, and could equally have been called a robotic mule, because its skill sets are pre-destined to see it pressed into military service as a mule-like carrier companion for soldiers where conventional vehicles cannot go. Initially developed with funding from DARPA, BigDog’s raison d’etre is to carry ammunition, food and supplies into battle. BigDog can walk, run at speeds up to 3.3 mph, climb over rough terrain or up slopes up to 35 degrees and carry heavy loads – currently up to 120 pounds, but as development goes on, that figure might be significantly increased. BigDog is currently annoyingly noisy thanks to power being delivered by a gasoline engine that in turn drives the hydraulic actuation system for its legs. BigDog is much more than a dumb mule however - it is a pointer to the future - a wonderful example of humanity learning from the biomechanics and energetics of animal movement to build better robots that will serve humanity in many endeavours. Go on, check out the video - we promise you'll show all your friends. Check out the article's images gallery to see clips from the video and schematics.
EU project develops inexpensive robots for small and medium-sized companies
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February 14, 2006 Almost a million industrial robots are in service worldwide, and their numbers are steadily growing. However, most of them are found in the factories of major enterprises. An EU project aims to develop new, inexpensive versions for small and medium-sized firms. The European Union’s SMErobot project – the name is derived from “small and medium sized enterprises”, – include leading research institutes, universities and the top five European robot manufacturers. Its participants have set out to make robots attractive beyond the confines of large-scale industry. “For this to happen, the metal helpers must be completely redeveloped to a certain extent,” asserts Martin Hagele of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, who is coordinating the project. Read More
The first gun-toting robotic combat soldiers set to be deployed
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January 28, 2006 Meet the world’s first robotic combat soldier – also known as the Special Weapons Observation Remote Direct-Action System (SWORDS). The diminutive remote-controlled US$230,000 SWORDS machine shares the same base as the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Talon robots which have been deployed in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Unlike many of it’s flying robotic (UAV) brethren, the weaponised Talon is not autonomous, being under the direct control of a soldier watching from up to a mile away through an array of cameras which can include both night and thermal vision. SWORDS is completely silent, can keep pace with a running soldier (5mph), climb stairs, right itself, negotiate rock piles, overcome concertina wire, and plow through sand, snow and surf. Most importantly, it can shoot with astounding accuracy and thanks to its universal weapon-mounting device, can carry and fire your choice of an M-16, M-2, M-240 or M-249 machine gun, or the M-202A1 with a 66mm rocket launcher. SWORDS will be deployed to Iraq and see combat for the first time in the next few weeks, beginning a new era of ground warfare. Read More
Global Hawk UAV gets bigger and more capable
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November 11, 2005 The Global Hawk UAV was still in its development stages when the needs of the war in Afghanistan saw it pressed into service. Since then, Global Hawk has successfully completed more than 225 missions through three deployments and more than 4,900 combat flight hours. Now the aircraft has been redesigned to carry 50% more payload, so the Air Force can install additional sensors, enhancing its ability to simultaneously collect imagery, signals intelligence and infrared and radar information, and transfer it to the warfighting machine in near-real time. Global Hawk flies autonomously at an altitude of more than 60,000 feet, above inclement weather and prevailing winds, for 35+ hours at a time. During a single mission, it can provide detailed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information in near-real time over 40,000 square miles - approximately the size of Illinois. Read More
Valerie the domestic android takes shape
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November 3, 2005 Valerie the domestic android is running well behind her initial delivery date of December 2004 but remains the most promising advanced android in the world with more degrees of freedom than anything comparable. Valerie caused a sensation when we first wrote her up in mid-2004, with hundreds of readers (and the odd Gizmag staffer) concerned we’d been conned and that she was nothing more than a window-dummy and a lot of hot air. Well Valerie’s shapely window-dummy legs are taking shape, and her hands are all but finished (with four degrees of freedom per finger) and we’re thrilled to report that the project remains on our “most promising” list. Valerie will clean your house, change light bulbs, wash the dishes, do the laundry, check the sports scores for you, book plane tickets and call the police if there's an emergency. She speaks English (using the AT&T speech synthesizer for a realistic human-sounding voice) but more importantly, understands English and hence be programmed by non-programmers. Read More
The Snark - the meanest VTOL UAV on the planet
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October 29, 2005 Meet the Snark – an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle of immense capability that demonstrates just how far the breed has come in such a short period of time. Constructed mainly of Carbon Fibre and Kevlar, the Snark is light and fast (280 km/h), quiet (special rotor blades make it extremely quiet ), virtually invisible to radar or infrared detetection (it recycles its exhaust gases and emits little heat) and can carry a payload of 680kg, offering the ability to pack both massive firepower (enough to sink a ship) and surveillance equipment (such as high res infrared cameras with a magnification of 7500). But wait, there’s more, and this is the clincher. The Snark is the first UAV that runs on diesel fuel, which means it can be easily integrated into any military force – current UAVs require their own special fuel supply to be transported with them whereas the entire US Army plans to run on a single one fuel - diesel. Last and probably most importantly, the Snark can stay airborne for 24 hours at a time, offering an unprecedented loiter time for a machine of this capability. Read More
UAVs get smaller: the Micro Air Vehicle nears readiness
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October 26, 2005 As the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have unfolded, one of the new stars in the theatre of battle has been the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). As each new conflict redefines war based on the technologies coming of age at that time, the Iraq campaign has seen the coming of age of the UAV in its many wonderous forms. It is the most-requested capability among combatant commanders and in the last 18 months, UAV numbers in Iraq have jumped from fewer than 100 to more than 400 and there are now nearly 600 UAVs in the Afghanistan and Iraq theatres. Even more interesting is the dizzying array of unmanned aircraft used in traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAV roles. Now we’re set to see UAVs get smaller – much smaller. The United States Future Combat Systems (FCS) program recently passed a significant milestone in its progress toward selecting a Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system. The MAV has achieved a technology readiness level 6 and is now ready to begin transitioning the technology to the FCS program as an affordable backpackable systems suitable for dismounted soldier, Marine, and Special Forces missions. It will focus on the development of lift augmented ducted fan MAVs to accomplish unique military missions, particularly the hover and stare capability in restricted (e.g urban) environments to provide real-time combat information. Read More
Murata's Robot Bicyclist
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October 15, 2005 One of the many interesting displays at CEATAC last week was the bicycling robot “Murata Boy” developed by Japanese electronic components manufacturer Murata. Murata Boy was built entirely with standard Murata products such as gyroscopic, ultrasonic, and shock sensors and motion control, battery, imaging, and communication modules and for a little fellow, he certainly packs in the functionality, being capable of speeds up to 60cm/sec (2 km/h), standing upright without falling, obstacle detection, running backwards, running a predetermined course while monitoring his position, receiving instructions wirelessly and capturing and sending images to its PC master wirelessly. Murata is one of the key suppliers of robotics components for the burgeoning Japanese robotics industry and is using the Murata Boy robot to position itself internationally as a robotic components supplier. With the robotics market projected to reach 7.2 trillion yen by 2025 according to the Japan Robot Association, Murata is gearing up to supply the electronic component demand, having established a sophisticated distribution network across Europe, Asia, and North America.
Robotic fish in action at London Aquarium
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October 11. 2005 There may be a different fish to see for every day of the year at the London Aquarium at County Hall, but there's a new variety that has never swum any of the world's oceans. Since October 6 the Aquarium’s unique robotic fish has been swimming in a specially-designed tank. Three stunningly beautiful robotic fish have been created with jewel-bright scales and sinuous, astonishingly life-like movements. They have been produced by Professor Huosheng Hu and his human-centred robotics team of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Essex. Professor Hu's team have been working with the London Aquarium for three years to develop a biologically inspired robotic fish which mimic the undulating movement of nature's fish species – aiming for the speed of the tuna; the acceleration of a pike, and the navigating skill of the eel. Read More
Stanford University wins DARPA Grand Challenge race for robots - five complete course
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October 10, 2005 The DARPA Grand Challenge race for autonomous robotic vehicles has been run and won, with five robots completing the 132 mile course and the first four all finishing within minutes of each other. History will record however, that the winner was Stanford University’s Volkswagen-based "Stanley" beating out the two Carnegie Mellon Team Red entries by 11 minutes and 21 minutes respectively, with the Gray Team a further 16 minutes behind in fourth place. Had minor circumstances played out differently, any one of those four teams could have taken the US$2 million first prize and a place in history. As the Stanford vehicle crossed the line after 132 miles, the team's followers cheered and lifted team leader Sebastian Thrun shoulder high. Thrun is the director of Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Lab and Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. Congratulations to Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and to the team, and congratulations too to Carnegie Mellon robotics professor William "Red" Whittaker who put two vehicles in the race and finished with a close second and third place. It was a far cry from the results of the first DARPA Challenge, where the best-performed vehicle travelled just 7 miles – all but two of the 23 vehicles that started this event bettered that performance and four completed the course inside the allotted time. Most importantly, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsorship of the event over the last two years has yielded pure gold – the US$2 million prize has catalysed a dramatic acceleration in the development of autonomous ground vehicle technologies and demonstrated conclusively that autonomous robotic vehicles can travel long distances across difficult terrain at militarily relevant rates of speed. Read on for a full report from Gizmag’s Robotics reporter, Dan Christian with images and assistance from Eric Zbinden. Read More
Field finalised for DARPA Grand Challenge
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October 6, 2005 The DARPA Grand Challenge National Qualification Event (NQE)
Is finished and 23 robotic vehicles have been selected to compete in the Grand Challenge final event this coming Saturday, October 8, in the Mojave Desert near Primm, Nevada. The finalists will traverse a rugged desert course that features lakebeds, narrow desert roads, tight turns, tunnels, gateways and treacherous mountain passes. The actual course will not be revealed to teams until two hours before the event begins at approximately 6:30 a.m.
(PDT). The team whose vehicle traverses the entire course the fastest in under ten hours will win US $2 million. Dan Christian attended the NQE and filed this report. Dan will also be reporting for Gizmag from what promises to be one of the most significant automotive races in history.
Fujitsu Begins Limited Sales of Service Robots
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September 13, 2005 Fujitsu Frontech Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced that Fujitsu Frontech will begin limited sales of their new service robot, enon, on a limited basis in Japan from September 13, 2005. Jointly developed by the two companies, enon is an advanced practical-use service robot that can assist in such tasks as providing guidance, escorting guests, transporting objects, and security patrolling. Read More
X-45A Unmanned Combat Aircraft graduate with flying colours
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August 11, 2005 – Two Boeing Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) X-45A unmanned aircraft successfully completed a graduation exercise when they flew their most challenging simulated combat mission to date earlier this week at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. For test flights 63 and 64, the X-45As departed from the base, climbed to altitude, and autonomously used their on-board decision-making software to determine the best route of flight within the "area of action" or AOA. The pilot on the ground approved the plan and the two unmanned vehicles entered the AOA, a 30 by 60 mile area within the test range, ready to perform a simulated Preemptive Destruction-Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses mission. The mission involved identifying, attacking and destroying pre-identified ground-based radars and associated missile launchers before they could be used to launch surface-to-air missiles. During the test flight, the X-45A unmanned aircraft faced a simulated "pop-up" threat, used evasive maneuvers to avoid it, and autonomously determined which vehicle held the optimum position, weapons and fuel to attack the higher priority simulated target. Once the pilot authorized the attack, the unmanned aircraft simulated dropping weapons on the target. After engaging and destroying a second simulated target, the two X-45As completed their mission and safely returned to Edwards. Read More
UK 'Spy in the Sky' Watchkeeper programme announced
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July 28, 2005 The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) will be a new addition to the future battlespace reardless of whether the US is in the fight or not. Military UAV programs are being approved the world over with the latest being a UK 700 million pounds programme frrom the Uk department of Defence. Britain has finally given the green light to its Watchkeeper UAV Programme, the UK Armed Forces' new 'spy in the sky'. British Defence Secretary John Reid said in making the announcement,"Watchkeeper is the key to battlefield surveillance of the future. The new UAVs will be able to stay in the air for much longer than conventional aircraft, and will provide all-weather coverage by day and by night.” "UAVs are a key part of the future vision for our Armed Forces. They allow high-quality imagery of the battlefield to be passed to commanders quickly, enabling them to deliver more precise and decisive effect with greater accuracy. In addition, they improve operational effectiveness through their contribution to Network Enabled Capability.” Read More
Fire Scout helicopter UAV successfully fires test rockets
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July 27, 2005 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's RQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned air vehicle (UAV) reached another important milestone this week when the UAV successfully fired two test rockets. This is the first successful live weapons fire from an autonomous unmanned helicopter. This event proves Fire Scout's ability to perform strike missions -- in addition to conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance -- and subsequently expands its capabilities.
Fujitsu releases HOAP-3 programmable Linux robot
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July 10, 2005 Fujitsu has shown the third iteration of its Humanoid for Open Architecture Platform (HOAP) series of robots which first went on sale to research institutions and universities four years ago. As you’d expect, the HOAP-3 model is way better than HOAP-2 after four years of development and the new model has advanced image recognition capabilities and the ability to not only communicate but also to display emotion – a feature that seems high on the agenda for Japanese robotics manufacturers. HOAP-3 is now available to universities and its open systems architecture is designed so students and researchers can explore the little feller’s (he’s 60 cm tall and weighs 8 kg) RTLinux operating system and many advanced built-in features. Read More
Synthetic aperture radar may soon be used for reconnaissance on small UAVs
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June 30, 2005 Researchers at the United States National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories flew what is probably the world’s smallest fine-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) recently, making real-time images from the 6-kilometer range with a resolution of four inches. It was a first for the 25-pound instrument that may soon be used for reconnaissance on near-model-airplane-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The Robotica Zucchetti Evolution: State-of-the-art Robotic lawnmowing system
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June 19, 2005 If you’re an avid gardener with a sizeable area of lawn to mow, the Evolution might be just what you need so you can spend more quality time with the roses and plants which thrive on additional care. The Evolution is a premium quality lawn mowing robot built by Italian industrial robotics manufacturer Robotica Zucchetti and is a prime example of just how far automated systems have come in saving time and money in the home. It’s electric, recharges itself and will work any hours of the day or night you require, and will look after three quarters of an acre of grass on its own. If you have the right sized lawn that makes the Evolution a bargain at US$2299. Read More
World's Fastest Robotic Case Packer - Carbon Fiber reduces weight increases throughput
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June 8, 2005 Think carbon fiber and you think of expensive helmets, mission-critical lightweight components in Formula 1 racing cars and ... places where strength, performance and light weight are not optional. So a seemingly mundane production line robot is not exactly where you'd expect to find an exotic composite. Light weight components can make a huge difference when they're in the right place though and KUKA Robotics' new KUKA KR 40 PA case packing robot is a prime example. Read More
DARPA GRAND CHALLENGE 2005: 40 Teams through to next round
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June 8, 2005 The DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 autonomous ground vehicle competition was narrowed down to 40 teams yesterday – the teams which will compete from September 27 to October 5 to be one of the final 20 teams to compete in the second “race of the century” on October 8, 2005. The DARPA Grand Challenge is a race for fully autonomous vehicles – no drivers, no human assistance, no remote control. From the point that the vehicles leave the starting gate on October 8, they will be on their own an vehicles must travel approximately 150 miles over rugged desert roads using only onboard sensors and navigation equipment to find and follow the route and avoid obstacles. See our race report from the first race or read on for details of the second race and contestants. Read More
DARPA Grand Challenge 2004 autonomous ground vehicle competition
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March 13, 2004 will go down as one of the most significant dates in technological history – the first running of the DARPA Grand Challenge. As in the first automobile race 110 years earlier, a significant “Grand Prix” of US$1 MILLION was posted, though the competitors knew they were really competing for a place in history and many spent multiples of that amount just preparing for the race. The 142 mile course of rugged desert terrain from Barstow (near Los Angeles) to Primm (near Las Vegas) had to be traversed within ten hours by fully autonomous vehicles – no drivers, no human assistance, no remote control. Significantly, the race was not won, and the mass media coverage bordered on mockery. Read More
ScanEagle UAV passes 3000 combat hours in Iraq
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June 6, 2005 – ScanEagle, a long-endurance fully autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has surpassed 3,000 combat flight hours during operations in Iraq in just ten months. The low-cost UAV has proven to be one of the military's most effective tools for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in Iraqi. Since being deployed by the First Marine Expeditionary Force in August 2004, ScanEagle has accumulated flight hours at an increasingly high rate due to the need for its unmatched capabilities. "The Marines depend on ScanEagle daily to provide critical real-time imagery tactical commanders can use to develop a clearer picture of the battlefield," said Peggy Holly, Boeing ScanEagle program manager. "Reaching 3,000 combat flight hours in such a short time is a testament to ScanEagle's operational value." Read More
Snake-like robot conquers obstacles
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May 20, 2005 A virtually unstoppable "snakebot" developed by a University of Michigan team resembles a high-tech slinky as it climbs pipes and stairs, rolls over rough terrain and spans wide gaps to reach the other side. The 26-pound robot developed at the U-M College of Engineering is called OmniTread. It moves by rolling, log-style, or by lifting its head or tail, inchworm-like, and muscling itself forward. The robot's unique tread design prevents it from stalling on rough ground, said research professor Johann Borenstein, head of the mobile robotics lab at U-M. Read More
The Land Walker: the world's first 340cm bipedal exoskeleton
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Japanese machinery and robotics manufacturer Sakakibara-Kikai has released the first genuine bi-pedal exoskeleton – a landmark event and one which is certain to attract a lot of attention for the company. Mechanatrons and BattleMechs have long been the subject of scifi books, comics and movies with the promise of cyborg technology popularised by the smash sixties television series “The Six Million Dollar Man.” We’ve previously seen some celebrated exoskeletons in films such as Alien (Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley takes out the Queen alien in an exoskeleton), Star Wars (the AT-ST Imperial Scout Walker) and RoboCop (the ED209), but until now, the nearest thing we’ve seen in the metal was the 3.5 metre superhero exoskeleton Enryu from Tmsuk in Japan.
Sakakibara-Kikai’s Land Walker is just a tad shorter than Enryu at 3.4 metres, weighs 1000kg and shuffles along at 1.5kmh. Enryu is a lot faster than Land Walker but uses caterpillar-like tracks rather than legs to perform its chores – the strapping 3.5 metre Enryu will be called upon to rush into burning buildings, lift heavy objects and rescue people. Read More
New software allows a flock of UAVs to work together
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March 29, 2005 The old saying, "birds of a feather, flock together," can now be applied to a couple of small uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) flown in a NASA research experiment using principles derived from studies of fish and bird motions to simultaneously guide them around obstacles. Engineers and technicians from NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., recently conducted flight tests over a 'virtual' forest fire to evaluate new flight-control software that will allow UAVs the ability to autonomously react to obstacles as they fly pre-programmed missions. The tests were conducted over a remote area of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to investigate cooperative flight strategies for airborne monitoring and surveillance of natural disasters and for atmospheric sampling. Read More
Schiebel next-generation UAV Camcopter
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March 23, 2005 Looking for all the world like a flying shark, Schiebel's next-generation Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Camcopter S-100 was shown for the first time at the recent International Defence Expo. The Camcopter S-100 is a medium -range, medium endurance VTOL UAV system designed to provide a unique balance between advanced capabilities and operation in tactical environments. The remarkable potential in both civilian and military applications for unmanned autonomous helicopters was previously detailed in our Yamaha RMAX UAV story, though the Schiebel Camcopter's focus is primarily military. Read More
3.5 metre Tyrannosaurus Rex Robot
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March 12, 2005 There can be little doubt that the Japanese lead the world in robotics, and the 2005 World Expo to be held in Aichi Prefecture later this year will be the country’s first real opportunity to showcase its advanced robotics capabilities to the rest of the world. Toyota will lead the way with several distinct robotics projects on display such as partner robots, the i-unit mobility system and its robot buses, but a new robotic display has come to light that will be one of the hit features of the Expo – two giant robotic dinosaurs. Read More
UAV learns to think for itself - now technology will transition to military
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February 22, 2005 Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one step closer to someday matching, and possibly surpassing, their human-piloted counterparts, thanks to the successful completion of a project at Georgia Tech. The project showed that Gatech's GT Max rotary wing UAV is able to learn as it flies, manoeuvre aggressively and automatically plan a route through obstacles thanks to its Open Control Platform system. Researchers from several partner institutions and organizations have helped to successfully build, test and fly GTMax, with capabilities of flight control fault identification and reconfiguration, adaptive control and agile manoeuvring - all operating on a single vehicle and under a single software architecture. Read More
Korea shows its robotics prowess with a rival for Asimo
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January 25, 2005 A humanoid robot developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIST) has significantly bridged the gap between Japan's advanced robotic technologies and the rest of the world, once again affirming that Korea will be a major player in the fast-growing robotics industry. Developed in just three years at a fraction of the cost of the world's most advanced humanoid robot, Honda's Asimo, KAIST's robot will be known as Hubo. Hubo is a 150cm tall, 67 kilogram prodigy with a natural walk, voice recognition and synthesis faculties and advanced vision capabilities with both eyes operating independently. Unlike any previous humanoid, Hubo's on-board intelligence is largely supplemented a wireless connection to a powerful external server. Read More
Talon Explosive Ordnance Disposal robot gainfully employed in Baghdad
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BAGHDAD, Iraq January 13, 2005 As robotics, automation and autonomous robotics eventually reach consumers in numbers, we will find uses for cost-efficient, energy-efficient, systems that we have yet to conseive. As the robotic age dawns though, there are already some compelling advantages to using robots. The US Army is using robots to reduce the dangers to Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Baghdad. Read More
Honda Reveals Next Generation Asimo
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December 15 2004 Honda Motor has released details of its next-generation ASIMO robot that has now been under development for 19 years and is widely regarded as the most advanced humanoid robot in the world. The new version processes information far quicker than previous models and is hence more capable of responding to real-world environments. ASIMO incorporates three new major technologies, including "Posture Control" technology, making it possible for ASIMO to run in a natural, human-like way, "Autonomous Continuous Movement" technology, enabling ASIMO to choose a flexible route to a given destination and enhanced visual and force sensor technologies, enabling ASIMO to smoothly interact with people. Read More
Talon robot soldiers shipped to Iraq
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December 10, 2004 A new era of robot warfare has been launched with the US Army employing 100 TALON robots equipped with off-the-shelf chemical, gas, temperature, and radiation sensors for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. The explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) robots are to be used for a variety of missions ranging from clearing live grenades to neutralising mines in shallow water, and can be adapted for small mobile weapons systems (SMWS) for force protection. Read More
