Robot Living

The Karrar is a 4 meter long robotic plane built by Iran with a 600 mile range.

What the plane can actually carry seems to be up for debate.  On one hand it is supposed to be capable of carrying four cruise missiles, but some say those are way too heavy for it’s size.  Others say the term cruise missile could mean anti-ship missiles and that it is big enough to carry these.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated:

The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship.

I guess they have been reading War & Peace over in Iran, in order to come up with the above phrase.

Wired & MSNBC

Tags: drone, Iran, UAV

No, it’s not quiet like Dr. Octopus from Spiderman, but it does have 3 tentacle like arms.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has taken a snake robot and expanded on its capabilities by combing three of them together with a body, calling it a Robotic Tentacle Manipulator.

This robot can crawl, swim and get through narrrow spaces.  Derek Scherer, one of the researchers, says snake push off rocks to propel themselves and they are using the same idea here.

Researchers predict the technology may one day solve the “opening a door” problem, which has been a consistent obstacle in robotics, Scherer said. High levels of articulation in the manipulator could prove to be effective for grasping and rotating different types of door handles using knobs, handles, levers and bars.

This design is also meant to scale, so we could see smaller tentacle bots or some really big ones.

Link via (Gizmodo)

GUSS, (Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate) is the latest offering from  Torc Technologies.

The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Virginia Tech and TORC worked together to develop GUSS.

The autonomous vehicle can carry up to 1,800 pounds and move at about 5 miles per hour.  This enables troops to respond quickly if attacked or ambushed, by not having to carry  heavy packs.  GUSS also enables immediate casualty evacuation if needed.

GUSS coould see actual service as soon as 2015.

Click through to watch GUSS navigate through the woods.

Link via (Gizmodo)
(more…)

Tags: TORC Technologies, virginia tech

Science researchers in Massachusetts have developed a material that can shape shift or fold in an origami fashion.  From the Harvard University press release:

The sheet, a thin composite of rigid tiles and elastomer joints, is studded with thin foil actuators (motorized switches) and flexible electronics. The demonstration material contains twenty-five total actuators, divided into five groupings. A shape is produced by triggering the proper actuator groups in sequence.

Daniela Rus is a professor of electrical engineering at MIT and one of the creators of these smart sheets.  She had this to say:.

“Smart sheets are Origami Robots that will make any shape on demand for their user,”

Maybe some day this transforming material will be used to make real Transformers.

It comes as no surprise that this project received some of its funding from DARPA.

Click through for a video of the origami action.

Link (Thanks Morgan)
(more…)

Tags: Harvard University, MIT

A group of researchers from University of the Bundeswehr Munich (UBM) showed off their MuCAR-3 last week at the European Land Robot Trial or ELROB held in Germany.  MuCAR-3 stands for Munich Cognitive Autonomous Robot Cars and is the third version of the car.

The main idea here is for MuCAR-3 to automatically follow a lead convoy car.  If that car stops or backs up, the MuCAR-3 does the same thing.  This could be used in a military convoy setting to transport supplies.

The car  uses a vision system and a  LIDAR system to navigate. LIDAR is a technique that uses laser pulses to detect objects and distances from the object.  The real goal is to allow the robotic car to classify objects in  meaningful way by itself without human intervention.

In 2007, some of this research team participated in the DARPA Urban Challenge on Team AnnieWAY.

Click through for a video of MuCAR-3 from ELROB in 2009. Held in Finland, MuCAR-3 was the only vehicle to completely finish the race on a track with 5.2 km of dense forest.

Link via (LA Times)
(more…)

Tags: ELROB, germany, robotic vehicle