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Robot Octopus Movement

By Matt Wang | Published: May 23, 2013

So from last year, we have this incredible robotic tentacle, able to grip things and move flexibly and naturally. The main purpose of that project was for fitting into tight spaces. But how can we emulate an octopus’ incredible movement?

This video shows the motion research that a group of researchers from the Foundation of Research and Technology in Greece presented at this year’s IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) held in Karlsruhe, Germany. The goal of this project was to emulate an octopus’ unique style of swimming, called sculling, which uses all eight of the tentacles at the same time for forward movement. In the video, this is the G1 gait.

At first, the researchers started with stiff joints, as seen in the video above. This video demonstrates how the computer model connected with the actual testing procedure, to see that the movement was effective. Then, in the final seconds of the video, the viewer can see the use of soft compliant legs with movement in the water.

The G2 gait on the other hand, is unique in and of itself. While an octopus only swims with the eight tentacles moving synchronously, experiments have shown that some artificial gaits produce much smoother movement compared to the bursts of forward motion in sculling. Thus, researchers are also testing movement such as the G2 gait to see the effects on motion.

Of course, this robot octopus still has a long way to go. To start it off, a real octopus has funnel that pumps water out at high velocity, which does wonders for forward motion. The equivalent on a robot would probably be something akin to a pump jet motor. In addition, octopus anatomy points out one main area that has not been researched that could have potential. The base of an octopus’ tentacle has a web that connects it to all of the rest, which has potential for motion efficiency. Of course, all of this will require more testing, and only time will tell.

Also something to note is that the tentacles look and probably feel real. So, any of you out there with cephalophobia, I’m so sorry.

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Exciting Record for Miles Driven in Space

By Matt Wang | Published: May 16, 2013

The last people on the moon were three: Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt. These three people piloted the Apollo 17 mission, and in December of 1972, Cernan and Schmitt were able to take a joyride on the moon in their Lunar Roving Vehicle. They traveled 19.3 nautical miles (22.210 “regular” statute miles) on the moon. This length has marked the longest distance traveled by any NASA vehicle has tread on otherworldly ground. That is, until now.

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Remember this little guy? He’s Opportunity, a rover sent to Mars in 2003. Since then, he’s been actively doing his duty on Mars and getting scientific samples, taking  pictures, etc. His highlights are finding extramartian meteorites and extensive study of the Victoria Crater.

What’s really exciting, however, is that today, May 16, the little rover reported travelling 263 feet today exploring the Endeavor Crater. That brings its total distance traveled up to 22.220 statute miles.

Thus, this little robot has beaten the record for NASA’s extraterrestrial driving distance!

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The Assistive Robot Manipulator and Emotiv Epoc

By Matt Wang | Published: May 11, 2013

As a given, some disabled people cannot perform daily tasks regularly. An amputee may not be able to even brush their teeth, or touch and hold objects, for example. On the other hand, conventional solutions such as prosthetics and service robots are expensive and difficult to control. What’s the solution?

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Oh, what do we have hear? First, some interesting headgear, and next a robotic arm made out of wood? What could this combination possibly mean? People who are more familiar with neuroscience have probably heard of this nifty helmet. It’s called Emotiv Epoc, and it records a wide range of signals received from electrodes place on the scalp. But what do brainwaves have to do with robots?

Essentially, the goal is that people with disabilities can use Emotiv Epoc to control things without moving their bodies. In this context Emotive Epoc uses EMG (Electromyography) to pick up electrical signals through skeletal muscles. EMG is easier to translate than EEG (Electroencepholography) because it’s associated with physical motion; for example, lifting ones eyebrows makes the robot open the claw. There are other functions that are currently being controlled by a PlayStation 2 controller.

The robot itself is a cool arm in itself. It was made by researchers at Columbia University, with the goal of making an effective robot arm with a cost lower than $5,000. Thus, it is made of laser-cut wood, although the creators are considering using polycarbonate as an alternative as well. Everything else seems to be typical robot arm material, but one thing interesting is that evidently the robot gets better with practice.

From there, the total cost is currently $3,200. While better materials may increase the cost, overall this is much lower than provided by Medicare and Medicaid. So this robot has fulfilled the goal of being inexpensive while at the same time just being cool in itself, expanding more on the integration of the brain into robotics.

I seem to have issues embedding a video, so you should check it out here.

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Fly, Robot Fly

By Matt Wang | Published: May 6, 2013

So after seeing so many large-scale robots, people would be shocked to find out that the next great leap is creating a super-tiny robot. But the fact remains that making an effective tiny robot is also hard, and has incredible potential. So small insects… flies?

This is a nifty robot fly, made by researchers at Harvard University. Normal flies are small, but have wings that can flap at 120 time per second. To replicate the fly’s marvelous behavior, this robot fly weighs a mere 80 milligrams but has wings with a wingspan of 3 cm and a frequency of up to 120 Hz (cycles per second). In addition, each of the wings can be controlled independently, giving way to a wide variety of behaviors and flight patterns.

The “muscles” of this robot are made of piezoelectric actuators, strips of ceramic that expand and contract with the stimulation of electricity. The frame is made of carbon fiber and plastic hinge joints, altogether creating a very light structure.

This robot fly is part of a larger project called Robobees, with the goal to make advances in miniature robotics and refine coordination algorithms to manage multiple independent robots. This means that the robot fly could become a swarm robot and propagate the skies! However, currently this robot only functions tethered to a power source, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

Let the robots fly!

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Pole-Vaulting Quadrocopters

By Matt Wang | Published: April 29, 2013

How do robots without hands, flying in mid air, catch an inverted pendulum (a thin pole) with such precision, and throw it back and forth? With that blunt opening statement, this is Pole-Vaulting Quadrocopters!

So what is this thing? Well, it’s a Masters thesis made by Dario Brescianini, a student at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control. This phenomenal student created an algorithm for this quadrocopter, with a mere circular plate, to be able to toss an inverted pendulum back and forth.

I won’t go into too much depth about the specific processes involved in design. Basically, first Dario made a 2D mathematical model of the pendulum motion and determined the ideal trajectory, with components of position, speed, and angles. Next, he determined how well the mathematical theoretical model fit with realistic motion, mainly involving physical tests and throwing the pendulum by hand. Finally, they created the designs for materials to compensate for any error, such as creating a plate for catching the pendulum and equipping the pendulum with a shock absorber (a small balloon filled with flour).

But without all the design aspects, isn’t the precision and mathematical modeling of the pole-vaulting cool enough?

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Festo Robot Dragonfly

By Matt Wang | Published: April 18, 2013

It’s amazing how great minds can think alike. At the end of last year, TechJect created this robot dragonfly, and now, we have another super cool one to join it in the skies!

Inspired by nature: the complex wing-flapping principle of the dragonfly ...

Compared to the TechJect Dragonfly, it’s clear that the BionicOpter is a little bit more like an actual dragonfly. It has two pairs of carbon fiber and foil wings, and a head and a tail. However, with a wingspan of 70 cm and a body length of 48 cm, BionicOpter isn’t just your average robot insect.

The robot itself is controlled by nine servos (mechanisms that use feedback to correct and control performance), a two-cell lithium ion battery, and an ARM microcontroller. Its head and tail are moved by passing electrical current through nitinol (an alloy of nickel and titanium) muscles. But the coolest part about BionicOpter has to be the wings.

The primary ability of BionicOpter as a robot is its ability to fly stably. Like a real dragonfly, this robot can move both forwards and backwards as well as hover. The computer controls the frequency of individual wings at around 15-20 Hz (wing beats per second), rotational twisting at 90 degrees, and amplitude (up and down motion) at 50 degrees. These controls allow the wings to work perfectly when it receives commands. Using wing data and body position, BionicOpter also solves for vibrations that could occur in both indoor and outdoor flight, making BionicOpter the flying boss. And yet such a complex robot can be easily operated by a smartphone app. The robot automatically makes flying adjustments.

All this makes flying the BionicOpter through the air a breeze.

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Mantis, Giant Hexapod

By Matt Wang | Published: April 16, 2013

Seems like giant robot vehicles are all the fad lately! With robots like Stompy and Kuratas, when are we going to be able to drive these things on the streets?

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Two tons in weight. Nine feet tall. Six Legs. Fifty Horsepower. This monstrously awesome robot is probably the closest we’ll get (separately from the other giant robot vehicles, of course) to a humongous insect that terrorizes the world.

The chief designer Matt Denton apparently designed Mantis because it’s really cool to drive a hexapod robot. Who wouldn’t think so? Admittedly, Mantis moves a little slower than conventional vehicles. But considering the potential for misuse, maybe it’s a good thing that evil geniuses can’t ride Mantis around terrorizing the world. As a plus, speed can be improved, whereas the robot already has functions such as stabilization and object interaction, which conventional robot vehicles sometimes lack.

So hopefully we’ll see more of Mantis in the future. And hopefully that time won’t be when someone’s using it to take over the world.

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