MIT’s newest autonomous undersea vehicle, or AUV, is a doozy. Odyssey IV, as the sub is dubbed, can dive up (down?) to 6000 meters, and it is the most autonomous of MIT’s submarines created as part of their Sea Grant program. Erik Sofge from Popular Mechanics got some hands-on time with Odyssey, saying:
Since communication is cut off the instant Odyssey is submerged, if it gets into trouble—because of a system failure, or a realization that it’s somehow drifted off track—the robot knows enough to let its neutral buoyancy drag it back to the surface. Currently, it can follow a preplotted course using GPS waypoints and underwater coordinates culled from acoustic data. A year from now, this AUV could be able to chart its own mission paths by photographing its environment and using image recognition algorithms to find and follow the path of an underwater pipeline. Instead of simply bumping, Roomba-like, into its surroundings or relying on GPS like one of DARPA’s autonomous racecars, Odyssey will exert a groundbreaking level of control over its own fate.
The way the bot navigates is by first criss-crossing a certain area to make its own map of the surroundings. Then multi-directional thrusters allow it move. A downward pinging sensor let’s the sub know how far it is from the seafloor. Currently the robot can only stay underwater for 12 hours at most, but engineers envision an underwater recharging station that would allow Odyssey to be below the surface for months at a time. Future work for Odyssey will likely be surveying underwater pipeline, collecting data on coral ecosystems, and battling the Nautilus.
[Popular Mechanics]
Everyone loves a beer carrying/serving droid, but Bar2D2 here looks like he spent a few decades in the attic of a Jawa Sandcrawler. It’s basically an automatic dispensing machine for beer bottles and cans etc. He has some mixing skills too apparently. He sports an electric chair bottom and can even make some small talk, thanks to its R2-D2 voice module. Which probably screams and beeps to be let out of that body.
Married couple Nicholas and Angela from Kansas City, Missouri apparently love robots. They make Nerdbots from everyday objects found at their favorite antique and thrift stores.
They’re a tad like Cabbage Patch Kids in that you can adopt your own robot from the limited collection at their website. The robots range in price between $155-185. Because they often use vintage parts, the robots have an abstract but retro look that’s pretty cool.
What could be better then having a droid ready to roll on your watch? The R2-D2 Whizzwatch while not heavy on style, lets you control a miniature version of R2-D2 with a special wristwatch IR transmitter. R2 is attached to it’s strap.
Just unclip the little droid, put him on your desk and watch him go. The watch supposedly has a variety of digital readouts, and you can switch between 12/24 hour displays. It costs about $36. My concern with this watch would be running into some dude with a Jawa watch. If the two should fight, your little droid might end up in a Jawa sandcrawler. That would not end well for R2.
In addition to becoming bionic, prostheses may soon help a person feel bionic too. Bionic hands with gelled fingertips may be the answer to giving the wearer a sense of touch and sensitivity. It may even help them instinctively hold objects. That’s because humans have a reflexes that respond to vibrations. The top part of the bionic hand would consist of a rubber skin filled with silicon gel.
When an object slips, the skin transmits the vibrations through the gel to acoustic sensors, giving the wearer feedback so that the motors can tighten their grip. Also, the finger is also covered with electrodes, which change the electric conduction to accompany the pressure. So now they will be able to feel as well as function.
When last we left Norwegian research company, the Sintef Group, they had announced that they’ve been working on their own robotic serpents. Looks like they have come a long way in a short amount of time. The snake bot now has a clever name. Anna Konda. And she has been fitted with what amounts to a super soaker.
Anna Konda is 3 meters long, weighs in at 75 kilos, and has 20 joints, each of which has 33 degrees of movement. It shoots water sure, but it’s also powered by H2O. In each joint section there are hydraulic valves and cylinders that can handle as much as 1450 psi of water pressure.
One disadvantage to being water powered is that the robot will likely have to be near a water source, but that won’t slow it’s slither. Anna Konda is designed to be a fire fighting snake after all. The high water pressure has the added advantage of making it stronger while keeping it’s components cool which is a bonus when fighting fires. Video below.
As the video demonstrates, Nissan’s Biomimetric Car Robot Drive, or BR23C, was designed to avoid collisions by steering clear of oncoming objects, and in this case an attractive female. As we explained the other day, the science is based on bee behavior, making avoiding collisions instinct. Nissan hopes to have this in cars soon, but we’ve got a ways to go.
MIT’s newest autonomous undersea vehicle, or AUV, is a doozy. Odyssey IV, as the sub is dubbed, can dive up (down?) to 6000 meters, and it is the most autonomous of MIT’s submarines created as part of their Sea Grant program. Erik Sofge from Popular Mechanics got some hands-on time with Odyssey, saying:
