Tag Archives: Vehicles

Autonomous Plane Avoids Obstacles

While it’s true that autonomous flight vehicles have existed for a while, allowing helicopters and the like to fly, avoid obstacles, and land effectively. But this is the first time that a plane has been made so efficiently. Helicopters and other rotor-based aircraft are unique in that they have more control over planes, which mostly […]

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A New Generation of Mars Rover

Mars. The red planet named after the Greco-Roman god of war has been the setting of numerous publications, from scientific journals to science fiction novels. In the science and astronomy community, Mars is a point of considerable interest, and NASA has created many space probes sent to unlock some of Mars’ mysteries. The latest robotic […]

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Balancing a Robot on a Ball

Cars can drive in forward and backwards. This robot can drive sideways, while sitting on top of a round ball. The concept of a “ball drive” to move a vehicle has been explored many times due to the advantages of being able to drive in any direction at “full speed” and being able to change […]

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Passive Walking Robot

Imagine if a robot could move without using any power at all. Sounds ludicrous, right? But a new robot make by the Nagoya Institute of Technology does this: the robot requires no motors, electricity, or anything of the sort to move. Just a little push. The robot moves with only it’s own weight. Made of […]

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Robot Fish Blimp

Robots, fish, and blimps don’t seem very parallel at all. Yet they come together in a remarkable cool robot: the Electroactive Polymer Robot Blimp. Made by Empa, a Swiss Federal Laboratory that specializes in material sciences, the Robot Blimp is lighter than air, eight feet long, and has actuators that act like muscles to move […]

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Perching UAV

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Stanford University has developed a plane that can land on and take off of walls vertically! Latching on with miniature hooks on “claws,” the unmanned vehicle can approach a vertical surface at about 22 mph, and drastically slows as it nears the wall. Its claws are controlled to extend and release when prompted, and it […]

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Robotics Suspension System

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The use of ground robots in military explosive-ordinance-disposal missions already saves many lives and prevents thousands of other casualties. If the current limitations on mobility and manipulation capabilities of robots can be overcome, robots could potentially assist warfighters across a greater range of missions. DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program seeks to create and […]

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