Robot Living

A group of researchers led by Aaron Dollar from Yale University have developed an autonomous helicopter that can pick up objects.  Yale Aerial Manipulator as the robot is called, could be used in hard to reach places or for removing things like bombs.

The robotic helicopter can reach speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour and pick up objects weighing up to two kilograms. The robotic hand is made up of four fingers, made from lightweight plastic.

This seems like it could be good for search and rescue operations if outfitted with a camera.  It couldn’t pick up injured people, but could potentially bring them supplies like food and water until real help arrives.  Or it could be used for removing bombs from dangerous situations.

Click through for a video demonstration.

Link via (Technology Review)
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Tags: UAV, Yale University

If you haven’t been following Robonaut 2 on Twitter, we suggest you do.  He has been talking about his packing for the upcoming space trip.

Here is a short time lapse video of  Robonaut 2 being packed for space travel.  follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AstroRobonaut.

Tags: Robonaut 2

Using a nanofabric developed at MIT that absorbs oil and not water, scientists at MIT envision a fleet of Seaswarm robots cleaning up oil spills.

They also state that a swarm of 5,000 Seaswarm robots would take about a month to clean up the oil spill in the size of the one in the Gulf Coast.

Seaswarm is intended to work as a fleet, or “swarm” of vehicles, which communicate their location through GPS and WiFi in order to create an organized system for collection that can work continuously without human support. Because they are smaller than commercial skimmers attached to large fishing vessels, they are able to navigate hard to reach places like estuaries and coast lines. Seaswarm works by detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward until it has removed the oil from a single site before joining other vehicles that are still cleaning. Oil is “digested” locally so that Seaswarm does not need to make repeated trips back to shore, which would dramatically slow collection time.

The nanomaterial can absorb up to twenty times it’s own weight and the material is heated to remove the oil.  The Sea Swarm is powered by solar panels and could operate autonomously for several weeks.  Seaswarm is sixteen feet long and seven feet wide.

The Seaswarm prototype was recently unveiled at the Venice Bieniale’s Italian Pavillion.

Click through for a video.

Link via MIT.edu via (Physorg)
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Tags: MIT

Researchers at Stanford University have created a climbing robot that has sticky feet, like those found on a gecko.  A team led by Mark Cutkosky, a professor at Stanford, have created Stickybot II.

Stickybot III uses special feet to cling to any surface.  The robot also has a long tail that helps decrease the weight load each sticky foot has to bear. The feet, inspired by a gecko, are made up of tiny hairs, each about 5 times smaller than a human hair.

The interaction between the molecules of gecko toe hair and the wall is a molecular attraction called van der Waals force. A gecko can hang and support its whole weight on one toe by placing it on the glass and then pulling it back. It only sticks when you pull in one direction – their toes are a kind of one-way adhesive, Cutkosky said.

A while back, Carnegie Mellon had also been working on a gecko inspired robot.

I wonder which gecko inspired robot would win in a race?

Click through to see Stickybot III do his Spiderman thing.

Stanford News & Stanford Biomimetics Lab

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Tags: Stanford University

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