June 14, 2010
Creepy robots: What every power line will be wearing in 2014 Those big high-tension power lines that form the national power grid need to be carefully inspected on a regular basis for impinging trees and other potential problems. In remote areas this work is often done by costly helicopter crews, but that could change when this cable crawling robot enters service. Creeping along the top guide wire at 3 mph, the robot actually runs using power harvested by induction from the main cables. The solar cells are only there for backup, and presumably so it can also look for problems during a blackout. The robot’s high-resolution cameras will automatically make comparisons with images taken earlier from the same location and then issue alerts if it finds obstructions like abnormal tree growth, some kid’s dangling sneakers, or an Earth Liberation Front banner on the line. The robot communicates using both satellite and cellphone links. Developed by the Electric Power Research Institute, each 6-foot-long, 140-pound robot will cost around $500,000, and according to EPRI it can cover 160 miles in a year. That seems kind of low to me, when you consider that 3 mph works out to over 26,000 miles in a year. Still, they claim it will save at least 30 percent when compared to the current helicopter inspections. The first commercial test is expected in 2014, just enough time for the UFO hunters and conspiracy theorists to come up with some crazy theory about what these robots are really doing. Technology Review, via Crave
June 10, 2010
LuminAR robot finally shows us what pico projectors were meant for (video) Still looking for an excuse to buy a pico projector? We might just have the perfect thing. LuminAR, a project of MIT student Natan Linder, is something like a sentient desk lamp of the sort that will make any dedicated Pixar fan’s heart skip a beat. It can follow a user’s actions, using a camera to detect gestures and beam information down to augment whichever reality they’re currently experiencing. Interestingly, the whole thing is built into a bulb socket, meaning it could be thrown into any lamp you like — if you can do without the whole automatic motion aspect. It’s based on what looks to be a Microsoft Lifecam Show webcam and what is certainly a Microvision Show WX projector, which is both focus and care free. There’s a demo video after the break but, sadly, little hope that this thing will be replacing your current desktop lamp any time soon. Continue reading LuminAR robot finally shows us what pico projectors were meant for (video) LuminAR robot finally shows us what pico projectors were meant for (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink PicoProjector-info.com | sourceMIT Media Lab | Email this | Comments
June 10, 2010
It’s been 2 years since we last checked out a robot arm controlled by a monkey brain. That arm (from back in 2008) had only four degrees of freedom, and this one is a whopping seven, but that doesn’t seem to phase the monkey much, as it deftly uses brain control to grasp a knob with the arm and receive a tasty reward. At this point, the monkey is relying on two brain implants (in the arm and hand areas of its motor cortex) to interpret nerve impulses and use them to control the arm. The fantasy is (as least, as this technology applies to people with disabilities) is to make the controller non-invasive, and some of the technology is sort of there. Sort of. But perhaps more importantly, this experiment shows just how capable and adaptable a brain is, and the potential is very exciting. Or at least, my brain is excited… My body, on the other hand, is getting a little worried about its potential obsolescence. [ MotorLab ] VIA [ IEEE ]
June 7, 2010
Quadrotors are getting smarter and more talented, but besides surveillance, their usefulness is a bit limited due to their size. Where one little helicopter fails, however, an assemblage of little helicopters might be able to succeed. The Distributed Flight Array is a project from the Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zurich that aims to combine a bunch of different little autonomous helicopters into a big glob of autonomous helicopters. Each helicopter unit has its own motor, computer, and sensors, and can wirelessly communicate with all the other units. In addition to flying, they also have little motorized wheels underneath to let them crawl around the ground. The especially cool bit is that the helicopters can also autonomously dock with each other, which enables them to team up to do things like steal children. There are all kinds of ways in which a distributed flight array could be useful. One of the most obvious is heavy lifting… Got something heavy? Call in a bunch of robots to combine and lift it. Got something heavier? Call in a bunch more. If one robot breaks, it’s not a big deal, since you can just swap in another one. The robots are even able to adapt on the fly to keep the entire array stable, so adding and removing individual robots is relatively straightforward. Still, getting the robots to reliably dock with each other in mid air is probably easier said than done… We’ll definite be looking forward to seeing some video of that in action. [ DFA ]
June 7, 2010
You can do some pretty incredible things with quadrotors in a precision motion capture environment. Angela Schöllig, Federico Augugliaro, and Raffaello D’Andrea from the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zürich in Switzerland have taught a pair of robot helicopters to dance in sync with a techno remix of the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. Why? Well, why not? I imagine, though, that this demonstration is part of a larger research path towards enabling cooperative (or swarm, if you will) behaviors. The environment that these quadrotors are dancing in is a 10m square box with netting on the sides and padding at the bottom, which allows for crazy moves with minimal risk to either the robots or nearby humans. At the top of the box are eight high speed cameras that are able to provide localization information with millimeter level of accuracy at a frequency of 200hz or greater. This means that you’re not likely to witness moves like this outside of a controlled and besensored space… At least, not until vision sensors and inertial measurement units get accurate enough, small enough, and cheap enough to put on the copters themselves. [ IDSC ]