Category: Robo Tonics

Machines Would Guard Drainage Tunnel: Fight Against Drug Peddlers

Neha Shukla

Most of us may not be aware that the drainage system that lay beneath our city and carry sewage, are also being actively used for drug smuggling. The underground system that runs between the Mexico and the United States are among the frequently used routes by the drug smugglers. Till date officers from U.S. Border Patrol were responsible to keep an eye on these activities going inside these filthy drains. These officers guarding the city used to crawl through these rotting, smelling puddles and completely counting on their instinct to…

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On Road Traffic Controller: Humanoids Take Over Streets

Neha Shukla

Robotics is one such area, which many people think can pose threat to human jobs. Bots could be seen everywhere, from automatizing work in mega factories to performing daily household chores. For instance, after the bar tending robot, now we would be witnessing a machine taking the charge of a traffic cop. 

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Termites Inspire Crew of Tiny Autonomous Bots: Biomimicry

Neha Shukla

Inspired from termites, which are usually known for causing damages to the buildings, researchers from Harvard University have created a crew of tiny robots that are designed to work autonomously. The bio-inspired robots termed as TERMES can work without any central supervision and can carry bricks to construct structures as towers, castles and pyramids. 

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Quest To Design Jellyfish Robot: Propulsion Movement Under Research

Neha Shukla

Animals have always inspired our scientists, whether it is in the field of medicine or robotics. Robots based on animal movement are not a new concept because animals perform activities more efficiently and proficiently, that are not yet achievable in our robots. In another animal inspired, jellyfish robot, researchers studied different animals from small creatures like moth to the largest like humpback whales, to understand how animals moved through water or air, with minimal transport cost. They discovered that the secret about their movement lies in the way these animals…

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Robots Capitalizing On The Efficiency Of Nature: Biomimicry

Pooja Kashyap

Tentacles of biomimicry have entered into the technology realm as well and hence we are witnessing robots derived from the workings of mother nature. Researchers are working towards developing designs that might bestow the animal capabilities to machines. Cats Inspired E-Whiskers Electronic whiskers are one such offshoot created by the researchers at the Berkeley Lab. They fabricated this design using carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles. With this it seems after eclipsing the Silicon, the CNTs would now make its presence felt among robotics as well. These artificial whiskers are made…

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Rise Of The Lizard Bots: Gecko Robot Might Go For Spacewalk Soon

Pooja Kashyap

What would be the field of robotics without biomimicry, I guess, nothing. After Cheetah bot and the Big Dog, researchers have come up with lizard-bot, to which they call gecko robot. Fabricated by a research team in Canada, the gecko robot can easily cross through a vertical surface. This mechanism (of sticking) is brought about by means of dry microscopic toe hair called the setae. Christened as Abigaille, the bot weighs around 240 gram. The six-legged climbing bot project is indeed inspired from the way lizards glue and walk effortlessly…

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Meet Valkyrie, Johnson Space Center’s New Super Hero

Pooja Kashyap

NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in association with the University of Texas and Texas A&M and with funding from the state of Texas itself have built a humanoid to which they call, Valkyrie, officially designated as “R5”. The bot is 6.2 feet tall, weighs around 125 kgs with 44 degree of freedom and is powered by battery. The machine is not built for any space mission or otherwise but for the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), that’ll hold its first round of competition in the second half of this month.

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Sinfonia’s Robot Up For Cleaning Solar Panels

Neha Shukla

We already know the importance of solar energy in this era when our regular fuel sources are being depleted. Need of the hour is to construct bigger solar plants to meet with the ever rising demand. However, it is not easy to maintain such immense Solar Plants. Dust particles, bird droppings or sand grains, bar the sunlight and result in lowering the overall output of the plants by 30% in just one month (as per some research). However, until now there was no cost effective and potent solution for the…

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Epson’s Dual Arm Robot, Amongst Hottest Trends In Industrial Robotics

Pooja Kashyap

The dual-arm, adaptable industrial robot by Seiko Epson, Japanese electronic company, reminds me of Sid, the sloth. Unlike the existing industrial bots, this prototype by Seiko Epson can visualize, take decisions, adapt as per the environment, can adjust the force while grabbing objects and above all, its portable. This dual-arm bot is capable of moving independently while performing simple tasks on assembly lines. As per the press release, Epson’s autonomous dual-arm robot is able to accurately recognize the position and orientation of objects in three-dimensional space, much like the human…

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MFC Powered Bots With Urine Powered Pumping Heart

Pooja Kashyap

Urine, an untapped resource, which was going into the drains before, will now be powering the next gen EcoBots. Researchers from the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol have come up with urine-powered artificial heart that’ll fuel these bots. The EcoBots will be generating their own energy with the help of onboard microbial fuel cells (MFCs). MFCs will break down urine in a process generating electricity. It is not only urine that the EcoBots are fed upon but also other organic feedstocks like rotten fruits,…

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Pars Will Be The New Lifeguard

Neha Shukla

An innovative invention in the field of robotics has been recently tested successfully. RTS lab, earlier this year disclosed its big idea named Pars a flying robot with the aim of rescuing drowning people at sea by dropping the life saver. This idea was backed by an Iran based company which provided the required funds for the testing of the first working model in the open Caspian sea where a number of drowning cases get reported time and again.

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Controlling Robots Via An Intuitive Command System

Pooja Kashyap

Eye contact and face engagement are the two most important elements that plays major role in interaction among humans. And this main thing was missing when interacting with robots but now bots too would react according to the given set of instruction(s) that they’d decipher as per the eye and face recognition. Researchers at IROS made it a reality. They showed how an individual robot obeyed – within a group of bots – an instruction. This breakthrough went ahead in controlling bots in a more natural way. The bots were…

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PaPeRo, The New Housekeeper, Cashier And Office Buddy

Neha Shukla

Japanese NEC has come up with the latest variant of PaPeRo Petit (Partner Type Personal Robot) also known as Communication Robot. Unlike its earlier mobile R2-D2 version PaPeRo bot is immobile. Measuring just 24 cm in length and 1.3 kg in weight, the new and improved bot will assist in many household activities. Empowered with face and speech recognition intelligence with almost 80-90% accuracy, the cute looking bot now feature an improved camera, microphone and many sensors to measure temperature and distance. Even in darkness, the bot is still capable…

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The Revolutionary UniMo Tank Tread Electric Wheelchairs

Neha Shukla

The International Robotics Exhibition held at Tokyo last week witnessed the first ever of its type wheelchair. Nano Optonics Energy of Japan presented the UniMo (Unique Mobility) electric driven wheelchair, making it now possible for wheelchair bound person to explore and travel beyond their limit with more ease, comfort and style. There are two models available: UniMo Grace and UniMo Sport.

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Biomimicry: Gimball Robot Inspired From Insects

Neha Shukla

Gimball robot is a recent advancement in flying robots, which can maintain its due course even after crashing into any obstruction. Conventionally,  robots find it difficult to maintain the line of course after any bump and after hitting, tend to go in arbitrary directions. The Gimball robot designed by EPFL PhD student Adrien Briod and his colleague Przemyslaw Mariusz Kornatowski, is a sensor free robot and is based on gyroscopic stabilization system to maintains its sense of direction. The robot consists of double carbon flexible spherical enclosure of 34cm in…

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