Mechanical Locomotion
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i 1 Vote Posted August 5, 2012 Atlanta, GA Image of Simulated Micro-Swimmer Illustration shows the rigid propulsive flaps on each side of the micro-swimmer, while the steering flap on the front is being deformed by a light source. The green cones represent velocity vectors through the middle of the micro-swimmer.
Biorobotics Lab
Snake robots can use their many internal degrees of freedom to thread through tightly packed volumes accessing locations that people and machinery otherwise cannot use. Moreover, these highly articulated devices can coordinate their internal degrees of freedom to perform a variety of locomotion capabilities that go beyond the capabilities of conventional wheeled and the recently developed legged robots. The true power of these devices is that they are versatile, achieving behaviors not limited to crawling, climbing, and swimming.
You may not realize it, but you've got a lot of springiness going on in your legs. You may also not realize that you change that springiness depending on whether you're running or walking, what surface you're on, and whether or not you're carrying stuff. Our bodies (and most animals) are able to dynamically adapt our legs and gaits to make us more efficient under changing conditions. Dynamic adaptation is something that robots are notoriously bad at, but EduBot, a son or cousin or something of the venerable RHex , has been experiment with six new "tunable" legs that allow it to adjust its gait on the fly.
Running Hexapod Gets Fancy New Tunable Legs
Japanese Ministry of Self-Defense Spends $1000 on Flying Robot Soccer Ball
One day, the Japanese Ministry of Self-Defense decided to wander into Akihabara , a major electronics shopping center in Tokyo. In what I'm told is a relatively typical Akihabara experience, a year and a half and about a thousand dollars later they came out with this crazy spherical flying robot about the size and shape of a soccer ball. According to the video, this is the world's first truly spherical flying robot (this may or may not be true). It can buzz around at up to 60 kilometers per hour [about 40 mph] or hover stably in narrow spaces like hallways. But its neatest trick is to land by just smacking into the ground and rolling to a stop to absorb the impact. It's also ideal for operating indoors, since keeping all of the flying and steering components inside the robot lets it happily bounce off walls, doors, windows, light fixtures, and startled people.
Robô com rodinhas é capaz de andar sobre superfícies irregulares
22/07/2010 10h37 - Atualizado em 22/07/2010 10h37 A empresa japonesa de eletrônicos Hitachi apresentou nesta quinta-feira (22) o robô Emiew2. O humanoide de 80 centímetros e 14 quilos foi desenvolvido com rodinhas para andar sobre qualquer superfície, inclusive solos irregulares, com falhas.Watch out, Asimo, there are some new humanoids on your tail! Photo: Honda Japan has long held world dominance when it comes to full-body walking humanoid robots. There's the pioneering Waseda robots , the impressive HRP series , the diminutive but nimble Sony Qrio and Toyota Partner robots, and of course, the country's most famous emissary: the charismatic, child-size, astronaut-like Honda Asimo , which ambles , runs , and climbs stairs with ( almost ) perfect precision.
Humanoid Robots Rise.
Athlete Robot Learning to Run Like Human
Japanese researcher Ryuma Niiyama wants to build a biped robot that runs. But not like Asimo , whose running gait is a bit, well, mechanical. Niiyama wants a robot with the vigor and agility of a human sprinter. To do that, he's building a legged bot that mimics our musculoskeletal system. He calls his robot Athlete. Each leg has seven sets of artificial muscles.Toyota's humanoid robot was born to run
We essentially can't get enough of advanced robots doing things that look human -- probably in the same way we can't get enough of pretending our dog understands English. Anthropomorphism aside, Toyota's humanoid running robot is really impressive. It's got a super impressive sense of balance, and he's quite fast on his feet -- running at an average of 7 km an hour (yes, that's faster than ASIMO can run), too. We can say with 100 percent certainty that we'd like to hang out with this guy -- check out the video after the break. <p style="text-align:right;color:#A8A8A8"></p>
Watch This Robot Crawl on a High-Voltage Power Line
Inspection of high-voltage power lines is costly, difficult, and a dangerous job even for skilled workers. Which means it's the perfect job for a robot . We first wrote about Expliner , an incredible inspection robot that balances on power lines like an acrobat, more than a year ago. Since then, HiBot , the Japanese company that developed Expliner, has gone on several inspection jobs, remote operating the robot as it crawls on 500-kilovolt live lines.