I have to say, this is simultaneously one of the most and least conventional climbing robots I’ve ever seen. We’re used to all kinds of weird stuff like claws and geckos and electroadhesion, but these robots just climb up with boring arms and legs and hands and feet. Which is actually kinda interesting.

Apparently these guys (called Yume Robo) aren’t exactly new… They’ve been climbing up and down a 15 meter high wall, every 20 minutes, for the last 184 days, until just last week. They’re dressed in silver work suits, but I don’t claim to know what they heck those antennae are for.

One more vid, after the jump. (Read more…)

Willow Garage has noticed that people like to name their robots, and that most of the time (at least where PR2 is concerned), the name is that of some fictional robot. So, they’re wondering what the right name is for a robot, if you’re one of those people who thinks that endowing an occasionally animate object with a name is a good idea… They’ve got a survey listing their top fictional robot choices, and they’d like you to tell them what you think.

Why? Well, you definitely won’t be entered into a drawing to win your very own PR2, which is sad, but “why not” is a pretty good reason too. I won’t tell you who I voted for, but I did include an angry comment wondering why I didn’t see Tom Servo or Crow on the list, and hoping that next time they’d include GIR.

Complete the survey (it takes like 15 seconds) and include your own angry comments by clicking here.

[ Willow Garage ]

We’ve seen robotic fish that are fairly lifelike, but you probably wouldn’t call them fast. This one, though, is damn quick. Robopike (actually a robotic version of a chain pickerel) doesn’t actually do anything besides briefly accelerate in one direction, but it manages to do so at 4g, which is (for a very short amount of time) about equivalent to a top-fuel dragster.

Robopike (which hails from UMass Amherst) is a very, very simple design: inside its 50 centimeter long rubber body is a springy metal strip. The fish gets bent into a “C” shape by an external clamp, and when the clamp is released, the tail whips back and forth, propelling the fish forward at breakneck speed. The 4g acceleration is nothing compared to the 15gs displayed by startled real pikes, but it’s still 8 times more than any other robofish in existence.

The next step is to do away with all the external paraphernalia… Researchers are hoping to use motors in Robopike’s head to pull wires attached to its tail to enable the robot to bend itself. Once they understand the fundamental physics, the hope is that future robofish might use such bursts of speed to better deal with turbulence and to help them escape from robosharks.

VIA [ New Scientist ]

This is Mr. T. He’s a ghost. He’s also a robot helicopter. He was built more or less from scratch by Michael Colton over at Utah Aerials, using some motors, servos, a microcontroller, cabinet hinges, and zip ties. In other words, it’s pure genius.

One important thing to keep in mind: Mr. T is way, way scarier than a real ghost, because its hands are two SPINNING BLADES OF DEATH. Run children, RUN!

[ Utah Aerials ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

The KUKA Titan is the strongest six axis industrial robot arm on the planet, capable of working with loads of up to 1000 kilograms. And now, it’s got its own mobile base, courtesy of an OmniMove base powered by a bunch of multidirectional Mecanum wheels. I’m not sure if the arm is actually operational while the base is moving (power issues, I’d imagine), but it sure is fearsome looking, especially with whatever is mounted on the end… It could be just another holonomic wheel, or it could be a death ray. I’m thinking death ray. That little guy in the front? That’s a youBot, which is basically the same robot, just smallified.

So, how much is 1000 kilos? As it turns out, it’s a lot:

That’s about 2,200 pounds for you imperialists, or not nearly enough to lift my Volvo. Phew, I’m safe.

[ KUKA Titan ] VIA [ Hizook ]

Electroadhesion is pretty sweet. It’s sort of the fantasy method of gripping something, since you turn it on and it’ll stick to just about anything until you turn it off, and then it doesn’t. The surface that it’s sticking to doesn’t matter… It can be conductive, non-conductive, smooth, rough, and even covered in dirt. Unlike passive gripping systems (like claws or artificial gecko toes), electroadhesion does continuously consume power as long as it’s active, but 20 microwatts per newton of weight is pretty damn efficient. SRI International have applied this technology to robots that can climb walls, but they’re also turning it into a robotic gripper.

Like the “jamming” gripper we saw last week, an electroadhesive gripper can be thought of as universal, in that it doesn’t need complex sensors or programming to do its job: you just put the gripper in contact with an object, turn on the electroadhesion, and pick it up. The electroadhesive surface itself is thin and flexible, so as Travis suggests over on Hizook, it might be feasible to incorporate it directly into existing gripping systems to improve their current capabilities, and enable some new ones.

[ SRI Electroadhesion ] VIA [ Hizook ]

Yesterday, ASIMO turned ten years old. It was also Halloween. Coincidence!?!!?!

Yes.

But, it’s still something to celebrate:

Honda has posted an inside look at the development of ASIMO, from waaaay back when Masato Hirose (now Executive Chief Engineer at Honda R&D) was initially told to make Astro Boy. Seriously. You can read about it here.

ASIMO has been around for so long now that we run the risk of taking him for granted, especially since he’s not generally considered to be practical (unless you count serving coffee or conducting an orchestra)… Honda deserves a lot of praise for spending who knows how much money over this period of time to continue to develop ASIMO. They must be pretty confident that the technologies inherent in ASIMO are going to pay off in a big way eventually, and I for one hope they’re right.

Anyway, it looks like ASIMO had a good time at his party:

And there’s more where that came from.

[ ASIMO ]