Weekly Roundup - Harvesting With Robots
Friday, June 22nd, 2007iRobot from Burlington Massachusetts has secured $50 million in credit from Bank of America. The speculation is that they will be acquiring another company soon. Link via (Robot Stock News)
Vision Robotics from San Diego is working on a robotic harvester. This robot will be used to harvest and trim grapevines. No word on how this will affect migrant workers. Link via (Wired)
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute will spend 40 days exploring the Arctic Ocean sea floor. They will do this with the help of two robots or AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) named Puma and Jaguar. They hope to find new and interesting life in these harsh conditions. Puma will be used to map out the hot fluid containing minerals rising from hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor. Once located, Jaguar will be deployed with video cameras and image mapping sonar. A third towed vehicle will collect actual samples. Retrieving the robots can be tricky as the ice floes on the surface tend to move. Link
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Up for auction at Lab X is a Bomb Squad Robot Pedsco RMI-3. Bidding starts at only $10,000! Anyone need to dispose of a bomb? Comes complete with large grabber claw and video camera. 
Boieng has completed the first successful test on the new A160T Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft. The Hummingbird flew for over 12 minutes and completed the tests successfully. One feature of this unmanned robocopter is a unique optimum speed rotor technology that enables it to adjust rotor speed depending on payload weight, height and speed. It will eventually be able to fly up to 30,000 feet and stay in action for up to 20 hours at a time. The US Navy and military are potential customers. They say it will be used for re-supply and reconnaissance missions, but I think you better watch out. George Orwell was right about 
Tiny robots will be used to form a wireless network in urban areas. These robots, called LANdroids, not much larger than a deck of cards, are basically mobile routers. The robots will be used to form self healing mesh networks. Robots will be deployed as the fighters or military are deployed. The tiny bots will maneuver into the best position to maximize communications capabilities. If one robot is taken out, the other robots will maneuver automatically to keep the network up and running. This is a new proposal by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), not yet a reality. They hope to keep the cost down to $100 per robot. DARPA is currently seeking proposals. See the PDF file 
The Transformers are coming! The movie is coming out July 3 across the country. To see the movie before then, travel to Providence Rhode Island to the 
