On Tuesday we posted a concept animation from Festo of something that looked like a tentacle robot. I commented that I hoped we’d see a prototype or something soon, but it turns out that the robot is fully armed (tentacled?) and operational and it’s not a tentacle but rather a manipulator arm based on an elephant’s trunk:

I especially liked the design of the grabber itself; notice how the structure passively grips around a spherical object when pressure is applied. The cyber kite is pretty cool too, we wrote about that back in December. This video is a 2010 highlight reel of Festo’s Bionic Learning Network projects… They did the same thing last year, featuring their incredibly awesome robot penguins.

[ Festo Bionics ]

This is Ziggy. You remember Ziggy, right? He weighs 340 pounds, is covered in titanium armor plate, and tosses other robots like salad with his pneumatic lifting arm. I’ll bet you didn’t know that he played football, though… You might think a robot like Ziggy would be best suited for linebacker or something, but instead, Ziggy is putting that pneumatic arm to use as a placekicker.

In a shameless PR ploy for RoboGames 2010, Ziggy will test out his kicking ability by going roboto-a-mano with San Francisco 49ers placekicker Joe Nedney, whose current in game record is something like 56 yards. Ziggy here broke 40 yards in testing last night without breaking a sweat, so check back next Monday to see how badly the puny human loses (assuming the robot decides to function properly, of course).

Gratuitous Ziggy video, after the jump. (Read more…)

At CES, we got a very good look at Neato Robotics’ new XV-11 vacuum robot. What we forgot to mention, though, is that the XV-11 comes with its very own USB port. While the robot isn’t initially shipping with any direct USB accessibility, the port allows for easy firmware upgrades as well as (more importantly!) the potential for hacking. This is a capability that iRobot has promoted with their Create platform, but then you’re buying a Create and not a vacuum. Plus, the XV-11 has that super sexy (and super cheap) laser rangefinder that everybody’s dying to play with. I know that the XV-11 is firmly a commercial product as opposed to a hobby platform, but if it manages to also be a hackable platform (to some extent at least), that would be another compelling reason for people with even a casual interest in robotics to buy one.

Meantime, Neato is busily producing XV-11s in time for its release this summer. Don’t forget, you can pre-order the XV-11 here.

[ Neato Robotics ]

We’ve covered a bunch of different climbing robots from Stanford around here, including RiSE, Spinybot, and (my favorite) Stickybot. Yesterday at Stanford’s National Robotics Week event, we were introduced to Stickybot III, a brand new incarnation of their gecko-inspired climbing robot. Apparently, Stickybot III was completed mere weeks ago, and while they’re still working on its actual climbing moves, we got a sneak peek:

Stickybot III is able to stick to glass by using an adhesive material that mimics gecko feet. Gecko toes are covered in bajillions of microscopic hairs that are so tiny that they are attracted to the very molecules in the surface that they’re on. So, the material is not sticky in the sense that you’re probably used to thinking about, rather the material is attracted to the surface directly through Van der Waals forces. You can read more about this here.

Lots more, after the jump. (Read more…)

Looks like Robonaut 2 is getting fast-tracked to the International Space Station to lend a robotic hand to the astronauts up there. It’s only a proof of concept type of thing, at first… Initially, Robonaut won’t even be able to move around. After some testing, though, the robot will be upgraded on-site with additional components that will allow it to move around both the inside and outside of the ISS, doing useful stuff (controlled by teleoperators back on Earth) so that the human astronauts don’t have to.

The dexterous humanoid robot not only looks like a human, it is designed to work like one. With human-like hands and arms, R2 is able to use the same tools that station crew members use. In the future, the greatest benefit of humanoid robots in space may be as an assistant or stand-in for astronauts during spacewalks or for tasks too difficult or dangerous for humans. For now R2 is still a prototype and does not have adequate protection needed to exist outside the space station in the extreme temperatures of space.

Testing the robot inside the station now will provide an important intermediate environment. R2 will be tested in zero gravity, as well as subjected to the station’s radiation and electromagnetic interference environments. The interior operations will provide performance data on how a robot may work side-by-side with astronauts. As development activities progress on the ground, station crews may be provided hardware and software to update R2 to allow it to do new tasks.

Incidentally, we now have the makings of a pretty sweet space robot wrestling match, if they put Robonaut 2 up against Dextre… Sorry, Robonaut, but my money is on the bot with the three meter long septuple jointed arms.

[ Robonaut ]

The 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation takes place next month up in Anchorage, Alaska. From May 3rd to May 8th, the who’s who of the robotics industry will be exhibiting their innovations, showing off the latest research, and putting on workshops and tutorials. ICRA features the likes of iRobot, Willow Garage, Aldebaran Robotics, Boston Dynamics, and Kuka, as well as research institutions like Stanford and MIT and CMU, and even DARPA will be showing up. And, as long as you can get yourself to Alaska, ICRA is something you (you!) can participate in as well.

IEEE has a Robotics and Automation Society that’s open to anyone who’s interested in robots and (more specifically) interested in meeting up with other people in industry or research at events like ICRA. It’s easy to join, especially for students, and if you’re thinking about a career in robotics, ICRA isn’t a bad place to start.

Plus, Alaska is fabulous this time of year… You might even be able to catch your very own Paro, I hear you can find ‘em just wandering around up there.

[ ICRA 2010 ]
[ IEEE Robotics and Automation Society ]

When we covered AUVSI last year, we got to watch Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout unmanned helicopter as it took part in a fake drug bust. Last week, one of the Fire Scouts currently undergoing testing aboard the USS McInerney managed a real drug bust after noticing what turned out to be a “go fast” drug boat on radar. The Fire Scout shadowed the boat for 3 hours, and after it rendezvoused with a fishing boat, the Coast Guard moved in and nabbed the baddies.

EASTERN PACIFIC OCEAN (April 3, 2010) During a routine test flight, a MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Take-off and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) supported its first drug interdiction with USS McInerney (FFG 8) and a U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (USCG LEDET). McInerney launched one of its two embarked Fire Scout’s to test different functions and settings when it acquired a suspected narcotics go-fast on radar. The Mission Payload Operator completed testing and received permission to pursue.

Over the course of three hours, Fire Scout monitored the go-fast with McInerney. With its state-of-the-art optics and extremely small profile, Fire Scout was able to maintain an unprecedented covert posture while feeding real-time video back to McInerney. Fire Scout proceeded to capture video of the go-fast meeting with a fishing vessel for what appeared to be a refueling/logistics transfer. McInerney and its embarked USCG LEDET moved in and seized approximately 60 kilos of cocaine and caused the suspected traffickers to jettison another approximately 200 kilos of narcotics.

No matter how cool and useful it might be, the Fire Scout program for the Army is still canceled. Sad face. But, it looks like it might at least have a future in the Navy.

[ Aviation Week ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

This is pretty cool: Sam Todo, who lives in the Togolese Republic in Africa (here), managed to construct a bipedal walking robot out of mostly old TV parts. It’s got a pretty nice gait, too, especially for something built from scratch. Somebody should send this guy some actual robot parts and see what he comes up with…

VIA [ Trossen ]

I don’t read German, but it looks like this concept from Festo for a robotic tentacle arm is fairly straightforward and well in line with the sorts of things that they’ve got experience with. The tentacle arm is actuated using air power instead of servos; by using air pressure to expand chambers in the arm it can be made to move in any direction. It looks like the hand is a little more complicated, relying on the addition of a few piston driven actuators for finer control. There’s not much more information on this design yet, but I’m crossing my tentacles that we’ll see a real prototype sometime soon.

[ Festo ]

This infographic is a nice National Robot Week-y overview of the industry. It doesn’t have any info that will shock dedicated BotJunkie readers (not even the bit about the cow milking robots), but it’s fun to glance through and has cute robot graphics.

The only thing I take issue with is where the artist says that ASIMO “doesn’t really have much of a purpose.” To that I would just say, of what purpose, sir, is a newborn baby? Hrmph.

It’s absurdly long, and you can view the whole thing after the jump. (Read more…)