Interview: Wei Gao, Research Scientist at University of California, Berkeley and LBNL

It gives me immense pleasure to introduce today Dr. Wei Gao, research scientist at University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research areas include nanomaterials, flexible electronics, micro/nanomachines, nanorobotics, biosensors, electrochemistry, nanomedicine and MEMS. Dr. Gao has coauthored numerous scientific journals like: “Reversible Swarming and Separation of Self-propelled Chemically-Powered Nanomotors under Acoustic Fields” “Artificial Micromotors in the Mouse’s Stomach: A Step Towards In Vivo Use of Synthetic Motors” “Water-Driven Micromotors for Rapid Photocatalytic Degradation of Biological and Chemical Warfare Agents” “Self-propelled activated-carbon Janus micromotors for efficient water…

10 Images of ESA’s IXV Mini-Shuttle: Blasting off in February 2015

ESA’s mini shuttle is all set to launch its flight and reentry mission. With this development, Europe will set strong foundation for innovative technology that would help future reentry missions for astronauts as well as other spatial bodies. The test flight is scheduled to be held on February 11. The entire operation would last for about 100 minutes testing the critical systems using 300 embedded sensors. Following are some of the images of the ESA’s space taxi, as they call it. 1) IXV during integration at Thales Alenia Space 2)…

Hector Robot is the Giant Stick Insect: Biomimicry

Biomechatronics researchers at Bielefeld University, Germany have come up with a bot called Hector that is inspired from stick insect, another invention in the field of biomimicry. The insect bot has six limbs with an ability of functioning independently. The embedded sensors help it in reacting autonomously to its external setting and accordingly assist in learning from experience. Only for research platform Jan Paskarbeit, the developer envisions Hector in areas like testing animal locomotion theories. The bot however, is not designed with an intention of severing humans in areas like…

Biomimicry: Robotic Spy Fish will do the Reconnaissance (ISR) Missions

Boston Engineering in collaboration with the U.S. Navy is developing a ‘tuna fish’, their new unmanned underwater vehicle. Developers envision that the fish would autonomously navigate across the sea for fetching information including surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The project has been named Project Silent Nemo that comes from Disney’s famous movie, Finding Nemo, where Nemo was the subject of search but in here, Nemo will do the finding. Swimmer drone   The unmanned underwater vehicle weighs around 100-pound while it’s length is about 5 feet. As a product of…

Automated Valet Parking and Charging for e-Mobility: A Smart Car System

A research conglomerate in Europe is about to finish a futuretech project involving an autonomous car dropping passengers at a railway station and then getting itself parked by identifying an empty spot and later picking up its commuter again. V-Charge is the name of the project that not only helps in commuting, parking but also includes charging up of the automobiles, autonomously. However, the mobility during the entire operation would be slow, so that the sensors may decipher the surrounding accurately.

Interview: Robert Cheek, Director Biz Dev at Yujin Robot, South Korea

Lately GoCart, a service robot from the vault of Yujin Robot Innovation Team, South Korea has hit the headlines across the globe. The bot opens up a new level of human-machine interaction where the machine will replace people in doing the everyday mundane and heavy piles of monotonous tasks, thus leaving the humans to provide emotional support, a task, which a machine can never accomplish. In order to get more in-depth analysis of the robot and its future implications, we tried to get in touch with Robert Cheek, Director Business…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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…

SaviOne the Butler Bot: Service Robot for Hospitality Industry

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…

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

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. 

Biomimicry: Tabbot Mimics Cartwheel Movement of Desert Spider

After the termites inspired crew of tiny autonomous bots, insect-inspired Micro-Robots and Gimball, biomimicry has a new entrant called the Tabbot. It is a tiny bot inspired from Morocco based spiders famous for doing cartwheels effortlessly. Interestingly, these spiders are capable of doing cartwheels up and down the sand dunes. Ingo Rechenberg, a professor at the Technical University of Berlin has been credited for this discovery. In order to preserve and utilize the resourcefulness of this unique mode of locomotion, the researcher has already fabricated a small bot that works…

ASIMO the Next-Generation Humanoid: A Total Knockout

HONDA unveiled its first ASIMO robot in the year 2000. ASIMO or Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility was designed to help people who lack mobility and has come a long way since then. The latest prototype of ASIMO, HONDA humanoid robot was displayed  at the International Auto Show in New York and was seen walking, running quickly and even climbing stairs with ease. Additionally, it can dance, kicks the ball, even jump and can handle uneven surfaces too.