Category: Robo Tonics

Robots would now Learn to Fall from Cats and Divers: Biomimicry

Pooja Kashyap

It’s not just the design but the falling mechanics too are being studied for implementation by researchers in biomimicry. In an attempt to develop natural reflexes in robots, scientists at the US are studying the techniques through which cats and athletes twist their body mid-air without being injured at the landing. By recreating the similar reflexes in droids, researchers aim to cut down the probability of robots crashing especially during hazardous missions like search-and-rescue operations.

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Biomimicry: Cyborg Cockroach would be the New Rescuers

Neha Shukla

Cockroaches are one organism that is disliked by a majority of people but these creepy looking creatures is soon going to help in tracing humans trapped in disaster sites. Similar to penny sized micro robots, these tiny roaches can make its way through the extremely small spaces where others like dogs, camera or robots might not reach thus making rescue operation slow and risking lives of people. 

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PIBOT will be the next Flying Captain: Humanoid Learns to Fly Real Airplanes

Pooja Kashyap

Last week, we talked about NAO, the humanoid learning to steer wheels and now we have a similar humanoid that is learning to fly real planes. PIBOT is the name of the small and affordable humanoid that is ready to take off our expectations into the skies. PIBOT has been fabricated to operate a toned down, simulated aircraft cockpit. The intelligent synthetic creature is able to make out and use the entire controls comprising of buttons and switches present in the cockpit of a light aircraft that is especially designed…

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GoCart, the Food Delivery Bot: Service Robot for Elderly and Health Care Industry

Pooja Kashyap

Slowly and steadily, robots are replacing labor in nearly all sectors some envision it as a threat while others think that it will make the human lives more convenient. There is no doubt that these machines would directly improve productivity and efficiency especially in service sector. Thinking on the same lines, manufactures are working across nations in developing service-oriented bots, first came James the Barman, followed by SaviOne the butler bot and now South Korea-based Yujin Robot has come up with GoCart, a meal-transport machine especially designed to function in…

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NAO will Drive its Own BMW Sports Car: Humanoid Learns to Steer

Pooja Kashyap

Autonomous vehicles are the machines capable of steering by itself, a concept that we are still trying to converge on the line of safety of passengers. Now what if an external machine comes and steer away a vehicle that is designed for humans?  Robots LAB, San Francisco based distributor of educational robots, have led to the creation of this imagination, they have come forward with a tiny tot humanoid Nao along with a BMW Z4 Electric sports car. Nao is capable of steering the car independently. The vehicle is equipped…

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SaviOne the Butler Bot: Service Robot for Hospitality Industry

Neha Shukla

Last year we talked about James, the new Barman and now we would be witnessing a robot butler developed by Savioke (pronounced “savvy oak”) entering the hospitality industry to maximize customers’ experience. As of August 20, Savioke’s first delivery robot (Botlr) nicknamed as A.L.O by the hotel, will be seen operating in hotel Aloft in Cupertino, California. In its pilot program, ROS powered autonomous robot, Botlr will be assisting hotel staff in delivering amenities such as mobile charger, towels, brush or even snacks, to the guest’s room and thus saving…

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Damaged Robot learns to Hobble Quickly: Coping with Limb Loss

Pooja Kashyap

Last year, a set of researchers at the Sorbonne University, Paris created a hexapod that was able to figure out how to walk even after one of its legs was malfunctioned, just like animals do. The robot was very much dependent on an experimental discovery to carry out the best gait to surmount the caused damaged. This meant that it analyzed then entire stuff that has been programmed into it to figure out the best possible way. Although, this worked fine but it consumed nearly 20 minutes every time it…

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Baxter Research Robot: Ideal Platform for Collaborative Robotics

Pooja Kashyap

Baxter Research Robot is an interesting and affordable concept for the corporate and academic robotics research across the world. It would help teaching fifth graders how to code on a real robo machine. Targeted towards academic and corporate R&D departments, it would assist in human-robot interaction and collaborative robotics to the next level. Safe and reliable hardware platform The humanoid robot platform is worth $25,000 (USD). It consists of two 7-axis arms, embedded cameras, sonar, torque based sensors and direct programming access through standard Robot Operating System interface. It makes…

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Skeletal Muscle Cell Powered Bio-Bots: Micro-Bots controlled by an Electric Field

Neha Shukla

Inspired from living organisms, researchers try to create robots that can simulate living creatures mechanically or chemically. This field of science is named as Biorobotics. A team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign has made a miniature walking bio-bots that derive its power from living muscle cells. And their movement can be regulated externally using electrical pulses. 

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Online Interactive Visualizations: New Learning Tool for Robots

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the University of Washington have come up with an approach where robots would be working or learning new skills via collaborating working by shooting a set of query to a larger online community. Rajesh Rao one of the lead scientist asserted that they are taking the one to one interaction to the next stage where the machine would be asking help from the whole world in case it happen to stuck at some problem or a puzzle. Until now, robots could only acquire learning through imitating humans, which…

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Biomimicry: Baby Elephant with Parallel Mechanism Legs

Pooja Kashyap

Until recently, most robots were designed to assist humans, right from the kitchen to their office premises we have seen these bots performing multi-tasking. Many fascinated machines have been fabricated keeping the nature in mind and this has led to a new field within robotics called the biomimicry. Every now and then, researchers come up with mind blowing ideas and concepts which creates an awe amongst the masses and this time, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China has created the same wave with their ‘baby elephant’. The robot…

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MagnetoSperm Microrobots for the Nanoworld: Biomimicry

Pooja Kashyap

Nature does not stop us marveling at its splendor be it at macro level or micro scale. There are limitless options to investigate and get inspired. Biomimicry is one such field in robotics, which is completely drenched with nature’s splash. Researchers do not leave any stone unturned when dealing with robos inspired from nature, lately a concept is put forward by experts at the University of Twente, Netherlands. They have taken inspiration from nature’s locomotion at microscale and have combined the process of two micro-scale entities like magnetotactic bacteria and…

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Sprinting Robot Raptor based on Velociraptor: Faster than Cheetah

Pooja Kashyap

Whenever we talk about speed and agility, first thing that comes to our mind is Boston Dynamics Cheetah, which runs at a speed to about 45.5 km/h. Until now, none of the bots have been able to give tough fight to the big cat, however, it seems, researchers at KAIST are preparing to stand tall with their new sprinter, Raptor. It has shown an impressive speed of 46 km/h, which happens to be slightly more than the big cat. Wow! Experts at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s…

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HAL Therapy: The Medical Service with Robot Suit

Pooja Kashyap

Team of researchers at the Centre for Neurorobotic Movement Training (ZNB) in Bochum is testing the HAL robot suit, which was initially fabricated by Japan in 2011. The robot suit was aimed at providing self-sufficiency to patients who have been paralyzed from the waist down. The condition, paraplegia causes impairment in both motor and sensory function of the lower limbs hence, the brain signals fail to co-ordinate within the limbs. And the weak signals are then lost within the system. It is here that the HAL robot suit comes into play.…

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