RoboticArms
Latest
Pentagon starts Phoenix trial to harvest defunct satellites, MacGyver new ones from orbit
The Phoenix Frankenprogram to harvest the corpses of expired satellites and cobble together new ones seemed like one of DARPA's more daft ideas, but this one has actually kicked off its first phase of development. The plan is to first launch a service craft -- replete with robotic arms and enough processing horsepower to work independently if needed -- followed by the tiny base-unit skeleton satlets. The service mothership would dip into an orbital area called the "graveyard", grabbing pre-chosen cadavers and picking off usable parts, especially valuable antenna arrays, with its robo-limbs. Those parts would be jury-rigged to the bare-bones units, creating usable Pentagon satellites and saving the $10,000 per pound launch cost. So far, a $2.5 million contract to develop the needed technology has been put in place, and bids for the no-frills satlets went out last week. Plenty of dirty work is still needed, so check the video after the break to see if the overly-elaborate plan can un-moot $300 billion of orbiting cold metal.
Elephant trunks inspire ISELLA robotic arm
It's not often you see a piece of tech touted by its developer as being inspired by something "long, gray, and soft," but that's exactly how the researchers at Germany's prolific Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute are describing their ISELLA robotic arms. Inspired by the finesse and power of an elephant's trunk, the team developed a unique redundant motorized "muscle" called DOHELIX, consisting of dual drive shafts intertwined around each other in a double helix, resulting in a system that can be scaled from micrometer-scale muscles to cranes in container seaports. The protoype ISELLA unit (pictured) has ten DOHELIX muscles, enough to mimic the flexibility of the human arm, but the team expects even better results when the system is ready to ship in two years -- here's hoping some enterprising carnie rigs up the next generation of elephant rides.[Via MedGadget]
