Working with Twitter and Double Robotics, The Post’s robot will provide a live stream of delegates and politicians in Cleveland and Philadelphia via Twitter’s app, Periscope, giving users a guided tour of the convention site and letting them ask questions about the convention experience via Periscope chat.
Tag Archives: robotics
MIT Drone Autonomously Avoids Obstacles at 30 MPH
CSAIL says Barry’s software runs 20 times faster than existing obstacle detection software. Operating at 120 frames per second, the open-source software allows the drone to detect objects and map its environment in real time, extracting depth information at 8.3 milliseconds per frame.
Source: Watch: MIT Drone Autonomously Avoids Obstacles at 30 MPH – Robotics Trends
Barry wrote about the system in his paper “Pushbroom Stereo for High-Speed Navigation in Cluttered Environments” (PDF) and says he needs to improve the software so it can work at more than one depth and dense environments.
Object recognition for robots
Because a SLAM map is three-dimensional, however, it does a better job of distinguishing objects that are near each other than single-perspective analysis can. The system devised by Pillai and Leonard, a professor of mechanical and ocean engineering, uses the SLAM map to guide the segmentation of images captured by its camera before feeding them to the object-recognition algorithm. It thus wastes less time on spurious hypotheses.
More important, the SLAM data let the system correlate the segmentation of images captured from different perspectives. Analyzing image segments that likely depict the same objects from different angles improves the system’s performance.
Source: Object recognition for robots
MegaBots At New York Comic Con
The team hopes one day fans will root for bots the way they do for racing’s Jeff Gordon, ultimate fighting’s Ronda Rousey, and boxing’s Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
via MegaBots At New York Comic Con – Business Insider.
In a MegaBots battle, a two-member team sits inside the bot’s upper torso, where the controls systems are housed. Although the co-founders assure me that the pilot and gunner are well protected inside, the situation presents a heightened suspense.
Each 15,000-pound robot is equipped with six-inch cannons inside its arms that fire paint-filled missiles and cannon balls at 120 miles per hour. Good aim can cause enough damage to jam its opponent’s weapons system or shoot of a limb. “These aren’t Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots,” Stroup laughs.
Robot Arm Will Install New Earth-Facing Cameras On The Space Station
TORONTO, CANADA – Canada’s robotic Canadarm2 will install the next two Urthecast cameras on the International Space Station, removing the need for astronauts to go outside to do the work themselves, the company announced today (Sept. 30).
Urthecast plans to place two Earth-facing cameras on the United States side of the station (on Node 3) to add to the two they already have on the Russian Zvezda module. Technical problems with the cameras forced the Russians to do an extra spacewalk to complete the work earlier this year.
via Robot Arm Will Install New Earth-Facing Cameras On The Space Station.
Gaining experience by doing and then figuring out how to automate that in space is the main reason for having a space station. This station is a valuable resource for all of mankind.
Robot OS to support Linux and Android on Snapdragon
Developed in large part by now defunct Willow Garage, ROS was designed for collaborative, open source robotics development. ROS is a collection of tools and libraries that simplify the task of creating and programming robotic platforms and applications. ROS is not a real-time OS, but it can be integrated with RTOSes, as well as Linux. As of earlier this year, Android support was added.
The default install for ROS is Ubuntu Linux. Core ROS components include message passing, message recording and playback, remote procedure calls, and a distributed parameter system. In addition to these core middleware components, ROS offers more robotics-specific features like a Unified Robot Description Format (URDF), a remote geometry library, preemptable remote procedure calls, and diagnostics. It also offers ready-built packages for common robotics problems like mobile navigation, pose estimation, and building a map and having the robot self-localize on it.
via Robot OS to support Linux and Android on Snapdragon · LinuxGizmos.com.
Double Robotics – Telepresence Robot for Telecommuters
Double is the ultimate tool for telecommuting. From anywhere in the world, you have a physical presence in the office and can speak to co-workers at anytime. Double is a remotely controlled, mobile teleconferencing system, enabling conversations to happen anywhere and anytime.
via Double Robotics – Telepresence Robot for Telecommuters.
These do seem a little creepy. They appear built on Segway tech and priced at $2500. There could be some use for these such as being able to walk around a museum as shown in the video below. How much would someone pay to do walk around on your own at the Louvre in Paris without having to fly there? Perhaps one day these robots become ubiquitous to a point where entire meeting rooms consist of nothing but these robots talking with other robots.
Double by Double Robotics – Buy Now from Double Robotics on Vimeo.
Sensor Fusion: High Speed Robots
In this research we develop a janken (rock-paper-scissors) robot with 100% winning rate as one example of human-machine cooperation systems. Human being plays one of rock, paper and scissors at the timing of one, two, three. According to the timing, the robot hand plays one of three kinds so as to beat the human being.
Recognition of human hand can be performed at 1ms with a high-speed vision, and the position and the shape of the human hand are recognized. The wrist joint angle of the robot hand is controlled based on the position of the human hand. The vision recognizes one of rock, paper and scissors based on the shape of the human hand. After that, the robot hand plays one of rock, paper and scissors so as to beat the human being in 1ms.
Matternet Building Quadcopter Drone Network To Transport Supplies
Whereas the internet is an information transporter, the “matternet” will transport…well, matter. These robotic “drones for good” will fly food, medicine, and other essentials to villages seasonally stranded by stormy weather and low quality road infrastructure.
via Matternet Building Quadcopter Drone Network To Transport Supplies | Singularity Hub.
Chinese Restaurant Owner Says Robot Noodle Maker Doing “A Good Job!”
That humans can be replaced by robots that do the job faster and cheaper is an idea that now pervades Chinese employers. “Chinese companies usually start considering robots when the payment for a skilled worker exceeds 50,000 yuan ($8,060) a year,” Tan Xueke, a manager at the Xinsong Robot Automation Company in Shenynang, told Xinhua News Agency.
via Chinese Restaurant Owner Says Robot Noodle Maker Doing “A Good Job!” | Singularity Hub.