Robotics

June 19, 2005 If you’re an avid gardener with a sizeable area of lawn to mow, the Evolution might be just what you need so you can spend more quality time with the roses and plants which thrive on additional care. The Evolution is a premium quality lawn mowing robot built by Italian industrial robotics manufacturer Robotica Zucchetti and is a prime example of just how far automated systems have come in saving time and money in the home. It’s electric, recharges itself and will work any hours of the day or night you require, and will look after three quarters of an acre of grass on its own. If you have the right sized lawn that makes the Evolution a bargain at US$2299.  Read More

June 8, 2005 Think carbon fiber and you think of expensive helmets, mission-critical lightweight components in Formula 1 racing cars and ... places where strength, performance and light weight are not optional. So a seemingly mundane production line robot is not exactly where you'd expect to find an exotic composite. Light weight components can make a huge difference when they're in the right place though and KUKA Robotics' new KUKA KR 40 PA case packing robot is a prime example.  Read More

June 8, 2005 The DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 autonomous ground vehicle competition was narrowed down to 40 teams yesterday – the teams which will compete from September 27 to October 5 to be one of the final 20 teams to compete in the second “race of the century” on October 8, 2005. The DARPA Grand Challenge is a race for fully autonomous vehicles – no drivers, no human assistance, no remote control. From the point that the vehicles leave the starting gate on October 8, they will be on their own an vehicles must travel approximately 150 miles over rugged desert roads using only onboard sensors and navigation equipment to find and follow the route and avoid obstacles. See our race report from the first race or read on for details of the second race and contestants.  Read More

June 6, 2005 – ScanEagle, a long-endurance fully autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has surpassed 3,000 combat flight hours during operations in Iraq in just ten months. The low-cost UAV has proven to be one of the military's most effective tools for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in Iraqi. Since being deployed by the First Marine Expeditionary Force in August 2004, ScanEagle has accumulated flight hours at an increasingly high rate due to the need for its unmatched capabilities. "The Marines depend on ScanEagle daily to provide critical real-time imagery tactical commanders can use to develop a clearer picture of the battlefield," said Peggy Holly, Boeing ScanEagle program manager. "Reaching 3,000 combat flight hours in such a short time is a testament to ScanEagle's operational value."  Read More

May 20, 2005 A virtually unstoppable "snakebot" developed by a University of Michigan team resembles a high-tech slinky as it climbs pipes and stairs, rolls over rough terrain and spans wide gaps to reach the other side. The 26-pound robot developed at the U-M College of Engineering is called OmniTread. It moves by rolling, log-style, or by lifting its head or tail, inchworm-like, and muscling itself forward. The robot's unique tread design prevents it from stalling on rough ground, said research professor Johann Borenstein, head of the mobile robotics lab at U-M.  Read More

March 29, 2005 The old saying, "birds of a feather, flock together," can now be applied to a couple of small uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) flown in a NASA research experiment using principles derived from studies of fish and bird motions to simultaneously guide them around obstacles. Engineers and technicians from NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., recently conducted flight tests over a 'virtual' forest fire to evaluate new flight-control software that will allow UAVs the ability to autonomously react to obstacles as they fly pre-programmed missions. The tests were conducted over a remote area of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to investigate cooperative flight strategies for airborne monitoring and surveillance of natural disasters and for atmospheric sampling.  Read More

March 23, 2005 Looking for all the world like a flying shark, Schiebel's next-generation Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Camcopter S-100 was shown for the first time at the recent International Defence Expo. The Camcopter S-100 is a medium -range, medium endurance VTOL UAV system designed to provide a unique balance between advanced capabilities and operation in tactical environments. The remarkable potential in both civilian and military applications for unmanned autonomous helicopters was previously detailed in our Yamaha RMAX UAV story, though the Schiebel Camcopter's focus is primarily military.  Read More

March 12, 2005 There can be little doubt that the Japanese lead the world in robotics, and the 2005 World Expo to be held in Aichi Prefecture later this year will be the country’s first real opportunity to showcase its advanced robotics capabilities to the rest of the world. Toyota will lead the way with several distinct robotics projects on display such as partner robots, the i-unit mobility system and its robot buses, but a new robotic display has come to light that will be one of the hit features of the Expo – two giant robotic dinosaurs.  Read More

February 22, 2005 Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one step closer to someday matching, and possibly surpassing, their human-piloted counterparts, thanks to the successful completion of a project at Georgia Tech. The project showed that Gatech's GT Max rotary wing UAV is able to learn as it flies, manoeuvre aggressively and automatically plan a route through obstacles thanks to its Open Control Platform system. Researchers from several partner institutions and organizations have helped to successfully build, test and fly GTMax, with capabilities of flight control fault identification and reconfiguration, adaptive control and agile manoeuvring - all operating on a single vehicle and under a single software architecture.  Read More