telerobotics
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MIT's MeBot makes telerobotics fun again
We know how you feel. Sure, telerobotics has changed your life for the better, allowing to interact with people as if you're really there, coasting through the halls of an institution of higher learning, dropping knowledge on anyone within shouting distance. But something's missing. You aren't happy, you aren't free. MeBot, developed at MIT's Personal Robotics Group and prepped for presentation at the Human-Robot Interaction conference in Osaka, Japan, looks to solve this. It adds movement to the equation, hoisting an OQO aloft for a head and adding in gesticulating arms to the equation. The idea is to allow the teleoperator to be more engaged through "head" and "arm" movements, with the arms being moved by handheld controls, and the head movement created by tracking the face of the operator. We could obviously conceive of a more elaborate representation, but the off the shelf components like the OQO brain seem worthy of commendation. Check out some video of the bot in action after the break.
TeMo robot carries mobile, takes orders from anywhere
We know just how attached humans can become with their robots -- particularly ones they have had a hand in creating. Thankfully, the advent of mobile broadband is allowing us to stay closer and closer to our mechanical critters, even when we're away. All gushing aside, the homegrown TeMo is indeed a pretty swank concoction -- it's constructed primarily from Lego Technic blocks and features five servo motors, an arm (you know, for doing stuff), a microcontroller and it's very own cellphone, complete with an unlimited data package. Put simply, the creature's handset runs a webserver that can be accessed from anywhere, theoretically giving its owner the ability to beam out commands halfway (or fully) across the globe. Best of all, the lowdown of how TeMo ticks is sprawled out in the read link below, so be sure to give that some attention if this sounds like the perfect solution for that strained long-distance relationship.
