The US Army has just awarded iRobot with a $14 million contract to provide more parts and software for their PackBots.
The order from the U.S. Army TACOM Contracting Center in Warren, Mich., will allow the Army to upgrade its existing iRobot 510 FasTac fleet to the iRobot 510 PackBot multi-mission robot.
Shown here is the iRobot 510 PackBot, currently being used in Iraq and Afghanistan for bomb disposal and other missions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tags: Harvard University, MIT
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