Researchers at the University of Bristol have designed a new robot arm that could be the low cost and easy to use the robotic device of the future. The team calls the robot arm Mantis, and it was designed to offer a lightweight, affordable, and accessible haptic force feedback device. Haptic feedback aims to simulate the sense of touch.
Though we're not yet at the point where robots can take fully take over warehouse jobs, technology is rapidly developing toward that end goal. One big issue surrounding robots in these jobs is their ability to sort items. Unlike boxes, which are neatly stacked and easy to grasp, small unpackaged items introduce randomness into the mix, requiring a robot to do a bunch of thinking about how it will grasp the items. This takes a fair bit of time...or at least it used to.
This bit of robotics from the folks at Spacebit is known as "The Walking Rover". It's effectively a moon spider - albeit with 4 legs instead of 8, and a box-like body of metal rather than organic. It's powered by the sun via solar panels and stores energy on rechargeable batteries. It weighs around 1.3kg, works with Swarm Intelligence, is part of a Modular Robotics Platform, and it can jump.
With a heavy focus on technology these days, kids that get exposed to related subjects at an early age get a distinct advantage over their peers. In the Society 5.0 future that Japan envisions, such subjects may, in fact, become a necessity. Educators, schools, and companies have long been pushing the STEM (now STEAM) category to acclimate kids better to sciences and maths. And what better way to capture kids' attention than by bringing the millennia-old benefits of play to combine toys and technology in the one thing that best mixes them both: robots.
As one of Japan's major airlines, All Nippon Airways or ANA knows just how many people wish they could go places easily. It also knows just how much that travel is beyond the reach of most people, even when it is necessary to reach out to or help a loved one. That is why parent company ANA Holdings is developing a new platform called "avatar-in" that will let you "teleport" your consciousness even when your body can't. And it is starting with a robot arm that can cook or even fish for you in your stead.
Robots are for mass-production, craftspeople are for one-offs, at least that's how it usually goes, but Nissan is upending that by teaching machines to make one-off parts with techniques more familiar to human workers. Dubbed "dual-sided dieless forming" it may be a bland name but the process - where two robots work together in mesmeric symmetry - could have a huge impact on niche production.
You've seen the videos of the robot animals walking up hills, getting kicked by humans, and doing backflips. Now, Boston Dynamics put one line of these robots, Spot, up for sale. Sales this week ales are being described by Boston Dynamics as an "early adopter program" and will target businesses, first. This is Boston Dynamics' first commercial robot.
The building of a robot typically involves the same sort of components no matter what the purpose of the bot is. Robots need things like motors, actuators, body segments, legs, and wheels. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a larger robot using smaller robots known as "smarticles." Smarticles is short for smart active particles.
Back in June, we talked about some new autonomous robot boats that had been invented by MIT. These boats were designed to find and attach to each other while floating in the canals of Amsterdam to pick up trash. MIT has announced an improvement to its robotic boats that could make them more efficient at picking up garbage.
I want this robot arm.* Not in the same way Moss wanted a robot arm in The IT Crowd, but in a way which is mysterious to me, a person who has never owned a robot arm. This is the Mirobot, an open-source desktop robot arm that does not (yet) exist in the world as a product that you (or I) can purchase. But if you've ever seen a robot arm that looks nearly so cute, I demand that you show me that baby robot arm immediately.
Building a companion robot is harder than you might think, but startup Zoetic AI believes its cutesy cyber-cat Kiki has the personality it takes to reach the mainstream. Resembling a cross between a bowling pin and a manga kitty, Kiki aims to do what Jibo, Kuri, and others failed to, earning a spot on your desk by virtue of its infinitely flexible AI-powered personality.
Japan is most famous for its sushi, anime, and, of course, robots so it's only natural that those will have a big presence in next year's biggest international sports events. It's also not surprising that Toyota, who has branched its robotics out into the mobility market is playing a big role in mixing the 2020 Olympics and robots. Don't expect giant mechas and Gundams, though, as Toyota's army of non-frightening robots will work to let people experience the event in a unique way, even from afar.