robotic arm
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Robot arms do battle... Medieval Times-style
Sure, it's not uncommon to see one robot arm take a break from productivity to engage in some shenanigans potentially fraught with peril, but two robot arms slacking off and wielding weapons? Well, that's cause for some sort of celebration. As you can see in the video after the break, however, whomever was responsible for this madness didn't completely let the arms loose on each other, which we can only hope means they're saving the arms for the inevitable Wiimote-controlled version.[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]
New robotic arm promises to mind Newton's third law
Don't you hate it how simply moving a robotic arm in a microgravity environment can produce enough negative reaction forces to alter a spacecraft's orientation? Well, a group of researchers from Cornell University have now devised a new type of robot arm that they say could make that pesky problem a thing of the past. To do that, they've employed a device known as a control-moment gyroscope (or CMG) instead of a motor to control the arm's joints, which not only reduces the amount energy required to move the arm, but lets it move faster as well. As you can see above, they've already tested the arm on board NASA's famous Vomit Comet, but there's no indication just yet as to when or if the arm will actually see action in space.
Robo arm Diggs without complaining, smells better than your brother
Look, this top ten celebrity child-rearing tips list of ours is gonna make it to the top, we just know it, and we're tired of hitting up family members to get stories out of the single digits. Luckily there's a better way. The robotic Digg arm -- which appears to be slightly or entirely fake -- refreshes a page, detects Digg badges on the screen, and then moves the cursor over them to "manually" Digg the stories. Apparently the bot can Digg 1500 stories a day, but we're gonna need some more evidence than this joke vid (embedded after the break) to be convinced of this bot's actual, welcomed existence.[Via Make]
Robotic Copycat Arm promises to taunt you with ease
While mind-control interfaces are all well and good, sometimes a simpler solution makes a bit more sense, and that's where this so-called Copycat Arm comes in. Developed by a group of researchers at the University of Tsukub, it makes use of a high-speed camera to monitor a person's movements, which are apparently instantly (and creepily) mimicked by the robot arm.Eventually, the researchers say the same system could be used as a computer interface, which they say could eliminate the need for a mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a video of the arm in action, but those heading to SIGGRAPH 2008 will apparently be able to check it out first hand.
Robotic arm bends to the will of the Wiimote
While we've seen a nunchuk control a robotic camera and the U.S. government's experimental Packbot, we've yet to see anything as sophisticated as this. With the video being past the post break (sorry, but it autoplays and we can't be having that on the main page), we'll save the narrative introduction of describing what this thing is and why it does what it does so well. Just know this: it's pretty awesome.Cruise past the post break and check out this Wiimote-controlled robotic arm and see for yourself.
Wiimote used to control robotic arm, effectively this time
Sure, it's been done before, but that doesn't make the idea of a robotic arm controlled by a Wiimote any less exciting, especially when the arm is actually responsive. That feat is aided considerably by the fact that this latest setup was developed by an engineer from National Instruments, who made use of some of the company's LabVIEW hardware and a specially-designed Bluetooth adapter to control the arm at the flick of a wrist (or using the Wiimote's buttons). Check it out in action in the video after the break -- don't worry, no one gets hurt.
The Wooden Menace: DIY robotic arm on the cheap
Oh yeah, we've seen our fair share of robotic arms, but it's not everyday that a craftsman posts an eight-page tutorial on how to construct one of your own for less than $60. The Wooden Menace was designed to show that an inexpensive robotic arm could indeed be constructed using household junk and a few store-bought parts, and while its utility is relatively limited, there's a certain level of cool to having such a device guarding your paperwork at the office. Aside from a cloned PS1 controller and a few hunks of wood, you'll only need a voltage regulator, microcontroller, five servos, a 20MHz oscillator and a few other parts to make it all come together. No need in giving you the run down here -- there's eight pages chock full of details (videos included) awaiting you in the read link below.[Via MAKE]
"Justin" humanoid robot gets shown off, no one harmed
It may just be for demonstration purposes for now, but this humanoid robot dubbed "Justin" certainly looks like he means business, and we can all be thankful that's he's confined to a table or there's no telling how things might have gone down. Apparently, Justin's biggest claim to fame is his pair of DLR-III Light-Weight arms which, in addition to making other robot arms look positively retro, are dexterous enough to pick up a trash can and dump it or twist a lid off a jar. No word as to when Justin might be let loose from the lab, but you can get a better look at what he's capable of in the video at the site linked below.
Brain2Robot project creates EEG-controlled robot arm
Thought-controlled appendages are far from new, but an international team of researchers have apparently created an apparatus that aims to make the lives of paralyzed individuals a tad easier. The Brain2Robot project utilizes electroencephalograph (EEG) signals in order to give patients the ability to control a robotic arm, which could eventually be used to do everything from hold periodicals to lift a cup of coffee. Reportedly, the arm could be ready for commercial use within just a few years, but there's no mention of an expected price range. Granted, we'd be a bit more excited about all of this if the technology were somehow made mobile, but it's hard to kvetch about a helping hand, regardless.[Via Primidi]
Robot arm issues subtle plea for help in promotional video
Apparently looking to show off the dexterity of its "Airic's_arm," automation firm Festo recently put together a slick promotional video that appears to show the robot arm writing "HELLO" on a touchscreen monitor. It seems that the arm may have had ideas of its own, however, as the writing appears to spell out "HELP" as much as it does "HELLO." Exactly what sort of distress the arm had to endure to cause it to issue this potentially non-existent plea, we're not sure. but we'd recommend that the folks at Festo not turn their back on the thing unless they want some robot arms of their own. Hit up the read link below for the complete video. [Thanks, Chad]
Festo's fluidic muscles make us all look weak
Yeah, we've seen some pretty fancy robotic arm work already this year, but Festo is out to show 'em all up with its fluidic muscle-packin' Airic's_arm. This robotic prosthesis sports a "bone structure" which mimics that found on a real live human, and can be moved via the 30 "muscles" built within. Essentially, Festo's approach to movement relies on "an elastomer tube reinforced by aramid fibers, which contract quickly and exert a pulling force when they're filled with a blast of compressed air or liquid." Of course, you'll notice it doesn't offer quite the same range as less bionic alternatives, but this thing's pretty accurate, indeed. Check it out for yourself, the video's right down there.[Via DesignNews]Read - Festo's Airic's_armRead - Video of Airic's_arm in action
DARPA-funded bionic arm gets second prototype
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, no strangers to reaching for seemingly unattainable goals in medical science, have set their sights on what some consider to be the ultimate pursuit of modern prosthetics: a bionic arm that moves, looks and feels like its human counterpart. And they want to do it by 2009. An earlier prototype of the arm, the Proto 1, was shown in April of this year, and now the team of scientists is scrambling to ready the arm's second iteration, the Proto 2, in time to show it off this week at the 25th Darpa Systems and Technology Symposium (where it will likely be joined by Dean Kamen's Darpa funded bionic arm). Researchers hope that the prothesis, which is currently controlled by skin-surface-attached myoelectric sensors, can be made more intuitive by adding injectable sensors, which send increased amounts of signals (and have improved clarity) allowing for greater control of the arm. In time, the team hopes to move to nerve-attached electrodes, or electrode arrays implanted on the brain, which will eventually allow for full user dexterity.[Via Wired]
Sensei robotic arm pulling off heart operations in the UK
Although the Sensei robot at St. Mary's Hospital in London may just be "one of four in the world," it certainly joins a packed crowd of mechanical colleagues that have been doing this whole "operation" bit for quite some time. As with most similar alternatives, this one operates (quite literally, actually) by responding to a human surgeon's input given via joystick, and the arm is then able to maneuver into more delicate and hard-to-reach locales in order to execute catheter ablation procedures. In the future, however, the Atari-lovin' doctor could be left out of the process entirely, as an automated edition could eventually be programmed to find its own way to the target without any human intervention. Med school graduates losing residency positions to metallic counterparts -- what is the world coming to?
Dean Kamen's robotic prosthetic arm gets detailed on video
While you'd heard the whispers of a robotic prosthetic arm being crafted by Dean Kamen and his engineering colleagues, very little details have since surfaced on the project. Thankfully, a video was captured during a recent conference in Honolulu, Hawaii where Dean was addressing the FIRST Robotics competition. During the speech, however, he segued (ahem) into a brief glimpse at what's been going on behind the scenes with the device. Shown as "Gen X - Separate Exo Control," the robotic arm was seen demonstrated by team members grasping a water bottle from a friend, picking up an ink pen and turning the wrist over in order to write, and even scratching his nose. Kamen explained that haptic response was paramount, and the "fully completed" prototype sports 14 degrees of freedom (and actuators) and weighs less than nine pounds. Click on through for the captured demonstration.[Via BoingBoing]
ASTRO satellite to autonomously move objects to NextSat
Don't say we didn't warn you, as just days after ASTRO and NextSat successfully completed an autonomous fuel transfer whilst orbiting, the thoughtful duo is already looking forward to the next big challenge. As Scenario 0 operation trials continue, the ASTRO satellite will utilize its "ten-foot-long robotic arm to move objects to NextSat," the first of which will purportedly be a "spare battery transfer" that will be "snatched from ASTRO and plugged into NextSat." Reportedly, this very battery will be the focal point of a number of future handoffs, and a "secondary sensor processing computer" will eventually be offloaded to NextSat as well if the arm cooperates. Of course, these relatively minor exchanges don't mark the end of the work week for these two, as a number of future scenarios look to provide increasingly difficult challenges for "mating" the two machines. Hey, we've already got robotic rights in the works, so we're looking that way for guidance about handling these newfangled (and slightly awkward) mechanical relationships, cool? [Via Slashdot]
