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GE's bringing good things, and massive robots, to life
Welcome to Time Machines, where we offer up a selection of mechanical oddities, milestone gadgets and unique inventions to test out your tech-history skills. America was in the middle of a post-war economic boom during the '50s and industries were in a rush to build the future, often with outlandish results. RCA-Whirlpool was busy whipping up the "miracle kitchen," chock-full of mod-cons to make the Jetsons jealous, and Simplicity Mfg. Co.'s air-conditioned, bubble-domed lawnmowers arrived to ease the painful process of landscaping. General Electric (GE), a longtime hotbed of innovation and research, had various projects underway, including engineer Ralph Mosher's Cybernetic Anthropomorphic Machine Systems (CAMS). Mosher was building man-amplifying tools that would allow users to control robotic appendages with natural human movement. Not to be left out, the US Army was plotting the future of rough- and remote-terrain vehicles, and it had its eye on GE and Mosher's work.
Robotic tuatara successfully generates research data
Just over two months ago Robo-Ollie, a robotic tuatara, was loosed into the wilderness on Stephens Island in New Zealand, and now that its creator and her colleagues have had a chance to monitor it in the wild, it looks like Mr. Oliver is performing toppingly. Sporting a nickel-cadmium battery, servos, and a rubberized skin suit, the creature has spent its time bobbing its head, gaping its mouth, and providing researchers with some intriguing data about aggressiveness and mating tendencies within the species. Unfortunately, the current iteration is essentially paralyzed from the neck back, and it took its masters a tick to understand how the head bobbing gig was "sending mixed signals" as it showcased feminine tendencies -- but now that he's regained his masculinity, it's on to figuring out what olfaction and infidelity have to do with tuatara life. [Via Digg]
SickSack robotic snake slithers through RoboCup
Although DARwin looked to be a fine effort from the US of A, Aske Olsson and Lars Pontoppidan's entry relied on a more down-low approach to taking care of business. Their SickSack robotic snake chose to crawl rather than run, but the uniqueness of the creature's movement most definitely deserve props. Gearing up a series of rollers to blast across the raceway isn't all that impressive, but the SickSack's use of passive wheels combined with mechanics that enabled lateral undulation made this thing about as beastly as a metal-clad bot can get. It also featured eight Futaba servos, a microcontroller, and a good bit of wiring and programming for its locomotion, and it (rightfully) took home the award for best design / effects at RoboCup 2007. Click on through for the creepy crawly videos.[Via Lars' Electric Endeavors]
