Robot Levitates Apples, Peels Onions With The Force (Of Air)
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 9 of December , 2009 at 1:20 am
Remember that Mindflex game from CES last year that used a little ball hovering on a jet of air? Well, if you use a more powerful jet of air and a fancy multi-axis robotic nozzle, you can manipulate objects in three dimensions through obstacle courses, toss things, hold up multiple objects, weigh objects, and even peel onions. It does it all!
The fluid dynamics involved in these manipulations, especially when you throw more than one object and non-spherical objects into the mix, are (I can only assume) pretty crazy. Stereo cameras track the object in the airstream, and a computer model directs the nozzle to vary the speed and direction of the jet to keep things stable.
The designers of the system, Aaron Becker and Robert Sandheinrich from University of Illinois, say that this technology could be used to handle flexible and delicate objects in a non-contact setting, but after seeing what the air jet did to that onion, I have to wonder whether putting a delicate object in that jet would be a good idea. Still, it does make an excellent onion peeler, and maybe if they turned it up a notch it might be able to do things like remove apple cores, juice oranges, or make meatloaf.
[ Aaron Becker ] VIA [ IEEE ]
Comments (3)
Category: Research
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
Comment by Robotbling
Made Wednesday, 9 of December , 2009 at 5:17 am
That is one very impressive video.
Comment by Hitsman
Made Wednesday, 9 of December , 2009 at 6:16 am
Non-spherical objects aren’t anything difficult to levitate with air. Anyone with a good nozzle on a shop air gun can levitate a screwdriver with almost no practice.
Comment by Joey1058
Made Wednesday, 9 of December , 2009 at 11:46 am
Something that powerful could very well peel skin off fingers. I’m surprised the demonstrator wasn’t wearing gloves.