Collaborate Disseminate
It is said that Benjamin Franklin, while watching the first manned flight of a hot air balloon by the Montgolfier brothers in Paris in 1783, responded when questioned as to the practical value of such a thing, “Of what practical use is a new-born baby?” Dr. Franklin certainly had a …read more
In November 2020, America will go to the polls to vote in perhaps the most consequential election in a generation. The winner will lead the country amid great social, economic and ecological unrest. The 2020 election will be a referendum on both the current White House and the direction of the country at large. Nearly […] Continue reading Ten questions for 2020 presidential candidate John Delaney
Anybody interested in building their own robot, sending spacecraft to the moon, or launching inter-continental ballistic missiles should have at least some basic filter options in their toolkit, otherwise the robot will likely wobble about erratically and the missile will miss it’s target.
What is a filter anyway? In practical …read more
When building robots, or indeed other complex mechanical systems, it’s often the case that more and more limit switches, light gates and sensors are amassed as the project evolves. Each addition brings more IO pin usage, cost, potentially new interfacing requirements and accompanying microcontrollers or ADCs. If you don’t have …read more
Continue reading FiberGrid: An Inexpensive Optical Sensor Framework
Making an outdoor rover is easy stuff, with lots of folk having them doing their roving activities on beaches and alien worlds. Clearly the new frontier is indoor environments, a frontier which is helpfully being conquered by [Andreas Hoelldorfer]’s Mantis Rover.
OK, we’re kidding. This project started out life as …read more
Continue reading Building A Robot Rover For Those Tough Indoor Missions
There’s something fascinating about humanoid robotic hands, if only because of how they are such close approximations of our own hands. One could almost picture them with tendons and skin covering them. Sadly, making your own is quite prohibitive because in addition to being complex bits of machinery, making one …read more
A new US Air Force kit that can turn a conventional aircraft into a robotic one has completed its maiden flight. Developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and DZYNE Technologies Incorporated as part of the Robotic Pilot Unmanned C… Continue reading ROBOpilot makes maiden flight in US Air Force tests
Interesting research: The squid robot is powered primarily by compressed air, which it stores in a cylinder in its nose (do squids have noses?). The fins and arms are controlled by pneumatic actuators. When the robot wants to move through the water, it… Continue reading Friday Squid Blogging: Robot Squid Propulsion
Interesting research: The squid robot is powered primarily by compressed air, which it stores in a cylinder in its nose (do squids have noses?). The fins and arms are controlled by pneumatic actuators. When the robot wants to move through the water, it opens a value to release a modest amount of compressed air; releasing the air all at once… Continue reading Friday Squid Blogging: Robot Squid Propulsion
Wearable robot mobility helpers can be heavy and cumbersome, but they have the potential to help those who can’t move to walk again or make light work of heavy objects. For a number of years, researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have been … Continue reading Hip-high soft exosuit provides walk or run assist