This research focuses on creating a robot to play rock-paper-scissors with a 100% winning rate as one example of human-machine cooperation systems. Human being plays one of rock, paper and scissors at the timing of one, two, three. According to the timing, the robot hand plays one of three kinds so as to beat the […]
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) has been working on a way to grasp onto asteroids to hold on while drilling into them. Ideally, you want some system that can reliably anchor a robot to an uneven surface while simultaneously providing enough downforce in microgravity to allow for sample collection, and this is where the microspines come […]
This interesting little robot is trying to overcome one of the biggest challenges of bipedal robots, keeping the system stable. The team at the University of Notre Dame is expoloring this challenge by using their robot KURMET for investigating non-steady-state dynamic maneuvers such as jumping. Legged robots offer advantages in terms of mobility over uneven terrain and, […]
During the Tokyo Hotaru Festival, 100,000 illuminated LED spheres were released into the Sumida River. The swarm of lighted balls was meant to mimic fireflies floating down the river in the moonlight. The majestic sight was captured in some of the beautiful photographs below. (By the way, the LEDs were later collected and did not […]
MindMentor is a robot developed by two psychologists, and consequently has become one himself! It resides on a website on the web, and charges $8 per hour of therapy. Can it replace a flesh-and-blood psychologist? Probably not. But it’s a heck of a great alternative. Say hi! MindMentor asks question about what’s worrying you, why […]
The curious looking gripping mechanism above draws inspiration from geckos. Large surface area on a gecko’s feet allows it to climb vertical walls by taking advantage of electrostatic forces. For example, the video below shows a robot with an electrostatic “foot” that climbs up a vertical wall This new project uses the same premise to […]
Jamming Gripper + Elephant Trunk = Awesome still in the early stages of development, this concept is trying to combine one of the more dexterous animal manipulators with the jamming technology we have seen popularized through the coffee ground filled balloon grippers. The arm is made up of a bunch of different jamming segments stuck together […]
