The researchers at Harvard University have made a robot that can camouflage itself!
It’s not quite a chameleon, or even an octopus. It’s more like… a sticky hand that can blend in with its surroundings. It’s a robot that moves around and changes color by pumping air and color liquid through it. Sure, it’s manual now, but hopefully in the future it will have its own self-contained systems. While it is slow, it is actually quite adept at changing it’s color, and can also use colors that glow in the dark or show up in infrared light.
The camouflaging robot could have many applications, whether it’s doing things undetected, or utilizing its flexibility to move through tight situations, or even using bright contrasting colors on a search-and-rescue mission.
Made by researchers at MIT, Meshworm is modeled after earthworms. Similar also to snails and sea cucumbers, the Meshworm uses stretching and squeezing motions to propel itself forward, utilizing the segments of its body. Even though the Meshworm seems soft, it’s actually quite durable, using nickel and titanium to construct an artificial muscle, and then wrapped around to separate the robot into segments. By stimulating it with an electrical charge, the wire expands and contracts, changing shape and propelling the robot forwards. What’s more, it can withstand large amounts of pressure, as demonstrated when it is hit by a hammer and stepped on with a shoe without any visible deterioration.
Scientists say that this soft robot can be used to navigate through rough terrain or squeeze through small spaces, and its flexibility and softness as well as its amazing resilience make it an effective robot in such situations.
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 aim at moving quickly forwards and cannot freely move in all directions. However, this autonomous plane that MIT built is able to accurately avoid obstacles without a GPS using flight algorithms. These tell the plane it’s location, orientation, velocity, and acceleration. To test the plane, it was flown indoors at 22 mph for seven minutes, avoiding obstacles by mere inches and traveling roughly three miles in distance.
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 toy in NASA’s arsenal is the 2000 lb robotic rover called the Mars Science Laboratory. Nicknamed Curiosity, the rover is set to land on the Martian surface on August 6.
Curiosity’s mission will be to determine whether the red planet could ever have supported life. It will also examine the climate and geology of Mars. To explore the mystery of this planet, Curiosity will use a wide array of scientific instruments at its disposal. Various cameras, chemical spectrometers, radiation sensors, and other sophisticated tools are housed in the frame of the rover.
From left to right, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover, 1997 Sojourner Rover, 2012 Mars Science Laboratory
Compared to the 1997 Sojourner rover and the two 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity will be twice as massive as the previous rovers combined, and its dimensions resemble that of a Mini Cooper automobile. Tasked to negotiate the rugged terrain of the Martian surface, Curiosity uses a “rocker-bogie” chassis. Using two rockers on each side, this chassis allows the wheels to climb over Martian rocks and obstacles while keeping the frame relatively level. Curiosity will be able to roll over obstacles 30 inches in height. The rover is powered by two radioisotope thermoelectric generators that produces electricity by using the natural heat produced by radioactive decay.
Delivering a payload on the surface of Mars presents interesting challenges for the engineering team. The atmosphere of Mars is thick enough such that a heat shield is required to protect the payload and retro-rockets alone is too unstable to provide safe and reliable deceleration. However, it is also thin enough such that aerodynamic braking, such as parachutes, won’t be entirely effective. A combination of both is needed to slow the payload safely and adequately. Although previous rovers used tetrahedron shell covered with airbags to cushion the landing, Curiosity’s enormous size compared to those rovers prevent this from being a viable solution. Instead, the reentry mechanism will use a sky-crane that hovers using eight rocket motors and lowers Curiosity on its wheels with cables and wires.
After Curiosity lands, it will conduct a mission lasting at least 685 Earth days, or one Martian year, in the Gale Crater. The rover will study the mineral composition of the rocks in the area and signs of organic molecules. The knowledge gained from Curiosity will help plan for future explorations, including planned manned missions, to Mars.
The concept of prosthetic limbs is not new; they’ve been around for a while, to replace limbs that no longer exist. Never before, however, have they been custom-made.
Prosthetic limbs have always been made in terms of how medically acceptable they are, which makes sense, since they do have a lot to do with the user’s health. But because of this, prosthetic legs have become less visually appealing. Bespoke Innovations, however, brings prosthetic legs to an industrial level, by making them both effective and visually appealing. The prosthetic legs are compared to their present counterparts, or, in the case where a person lacks both legs, to someone with similar physique. This brings the existence of prosthetic legs to an entirely new level, with comfort, application and fashion all together..
This doesn’t really need much premise. A group of students at Zhejiang University in China created two robots, Wu and Kong, that can play table tennis with relative fluidity and reflex.
Wu and Kong are equipped with eye-mounted cameras that send 120 images per second to the robot’s processor, which calculates ball trajectory and landing position almost instantly. Then, this information is sent to the robot’s hydraulic joints, which respond to send the ball back.
The robots still have a long way to go. They aren’t fast enough, and can’t move from side to side, so they probably won’t be winning any table tennis tournaments in the near future. However, the original intent has been achieved: the robot is an effective training aid, because it is able to return the ball consistently to the same place.
We see a lot of biped walking robots, but scientists at the University of Arizona have taken a lot of effort to make one with a human-like step. Instead of out brain doing all the work to control walking, we use a small part of our bodies located on our lower back called the central pattern generator (CPG) to augment our minds. By creating a basic digital version of that and connecting some feedback sensors in the legs, a more natural human stride was created. Though the robot can not yet balance on its own and has to function with a balancing aid, it is interesting to see how the robot can provide insight about the human gait.
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