As it does every year, Technology Robotix Society organised a grand introductory workshop for the enthusiastic freshers of IIT Kharagpur who turned out in huge numbers, occupying every nook and cranny of Kalidas Auditorium to witness the magic of robotics. The workshop began with a look into the work done by the society all through the years.Th... continue reading
Most robots are rigid. Rigid is easy to design, easy to construct, easy to calibrate, and more reliable for all of those dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks that robots excel at. When robots make fundamental structural compromises to rigidity, they do it in complicated ways, like with series elastic actuators or hydraulics. It’s worth it, though,... continue reading
A robotic minesweeper aims to defuse lethal roadside bombs that represented the signature weapon killed or wounded thousands of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The all-terrain vehicle developed by Oshkosh Defense resembles an ordinary military vehicle equipped with a mine roller that can clear the way ahead of convoys without a human driver. ... continue reading
It’s possible, even probable, that if you’re reading this article, you either know how to program a robot or could figure it out if you really put your mind to it. But for the rest (indeed for most people), programming is not necessarily a skill that they have at their fingertips. And even if you’re comfortable with writing code in general, wr... continue reading
The biggest thing holding drones back right now (especially small, inexpensive drones) is arguably battery life. It’s really bad. For a drone that can hover and carry any sort of payload, you’re looking at 10, maybe 20 minutes tops. And even fixed-wing drones don’t do all that much better. This is such an issue that CyPhy Works has developed d... continue reading
Humans, robots, and anything else with legs can have issues with navigating terrain that’s rough, sticky, or slippery. Navigating dangerous terrain like this isn’t necessarily a problem, as long as there’s a little bit of advanced warning. Imagine the difference between walking out onto an icy sidewalk that you _are _expecting, as opposed to w... continue reading
French robotics company Aldebaran unveiled its newest robot, a friendly humanoid named Pepper that seems determined to make everyone smile. Pepper talks, gesticulates, and zips by on wheels. And it has an “emotion engine,” designed to understand how people are feeling and react accordingly. Aldebaran built the robot for SoftBank, the Japanese... continue reading
Having to plug things into wall outlets is a recurring irritation of modern life. There are never enough of them, they’re never where you need them to be, and when you do plug into one, you end up with tangles of cords strewn all over the floor. Now Japanese researchers might have a solution, and it involves robots (of course). Their idea is to... continue reading
Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRLs) are robotic limbs that, when worn, give you more limbs than you’d normally have. In other words, they’re not robotic limbs designed to replace biological limbs that you might be missing, but rather robotic limbs designed to augment the number of limbs that you have already. MIT researchers have been developi... continue reading
Researchers have long been interested in fast-running robots with powerful, agile legs. In particular, several groups have focused on bio-inspired designs based on cheetahs. But when a team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) set out to create a new sprinting robot, they didn’t look at big cats; instead, they fou... continue reading