Robotic hand technology in the last decade has largely focused on making the machines simpler and lighter. This setup, while neither lightweight nor simple, displays an extraordinary precision and speed. These fingers are able to dribble a ball 10 times per second, using multiple high speed cameras to track the motion of the ball. The hand is amazingly […]
Jello that moves This research by led by chemist George M. Whitesides has accomplished much in the field of soft polymer robotics. This robot shown is am all-polymer robot that can undulate, crawl, and navigate obstacles. The control wires leading off the back are the only things that provide input to the structured jello that is then able […]
Biological systems, from multicellular organisms to social insects (“superorganisms”), get tremendous mileage from the cooperation of vast numbers of cheap, unreliable, and limited individuals. This lab builds modular robots, robot swarms, sensor networks, programmable materials to achieve the same end goal of creating swarms of cooperative cheap robots. This video shows the single component of […]
I’m not going to lie. When I heard about it… I thought it was a joke. What use could a tentacle arm possibly have? Then, the European Robotics Commission funds the project and I take it a bit more seriously But what exactly is the appeal of having an octopus? The conceptual design for the robot includes the […]
Hexapods are robots that can walk on six legs. And as if that wasn’t hard enough to build, consultant engineer Kåre Halvorsen in Norway set out build his “MorpHex” — a creepy-looking little robot that is not only able to walk, but can fold its legs in to form a ball and roll around. The […]
For a while, researchers have had tools to stick onto a surface. One of the cooler ways, however, is to use a robot that utilizes the Bernoulli’s principle. What Bernoulli’s principle states is simple: as a liquid moves faster, its pressure decreases. When used in the robot, air technically counts as a fluid, so if […]
