Companies are Using Robotic Exoskeletons to Help Keep Workers Safe #WearableWednesday

Bloomberg Quicktake: Now shared this video on Youtube!

ULS Robotics is developing three exoskeletons that workers can wear to hold and lift heavy equipment. One is for the upper body, another goes around the waist and the third focuses on the lower limbs. The first two weigh about seven kilograms each and allow a wearer to lift an additional 20 kilograms. They’re powered by a lithium battery that has a life of about six to eight hours.

Xu says the exoskeletons are most useful along general assembly lines, which still rely to a degree on manual labor. Just as bicycles have helped solve the “last mile” for e-commerce deliveries, so too can exoskeletons help solve “the last person” problem on a production line, he says.

GM is testing some of ULS Robotics’ products. Other customers include China Southern Airlines Co., Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the new Beijing Daxing International Airport. Exoskeletons could be especially useful for ground-handling staff, Xu said.

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Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

FreeBOT: Magnetic, Modular, Swarming, Climbing, Spherical Robots

FreeBOTs bring together aspects of swarm bots and modular bots. Each one is an iron sphere with motorized wheels and a permanent magnet. They can do a lot by themselves, but when a few of these spheres get together, their functionality expands greatly. More from IEEE Spectrum:

Since each robot has a ferromagnetic shell plus an internal permanent magnet, attaching one robot to another robot is relatively simple. Two robots can touch each other without connecting, since the iron shells are not permanent magnets. To make the attachment, the permanent magnet on the bottom of the little internal vehicle has to get close to the point at which the two spheres are touching, and when it does, the permanent magnet excites a magnetic field in the shells of both robots, causing them to stick together. The exact alignment is very forgiving, and the connection can happen absolutely anywhere on each robot, which is far more versatile than just about any other modular robotic system. Disconnecting simply involves moving the internal vehicle away from the connection point, which removes the magnetic field. Combining multiple FreeBOTs is where things get interesting, since it’s possible to create blobs of robots or chains of robots or use a small pile of robots to help one module overcome obstacles. Ferromagnetic surfaces can be leveraged even more by a swarm than by a single module.

See more!

 

Helen Greiner – CEO, Tertill: The Solar powered weeding robot #Tertill

Helen Greiner – CEO, Tertill stopped by! Interview with Helen, Ladyada, and pt.

Tertill is the garden weeding robot. Created by the inventor of Roomba, Tertill lives in your garden, runs on sunshine, and weeds every day – so you don’t have to! Tertill keeps weeds from sprouting robotically, so no need to spray herbicides, haul mulch, or put down ugly plastic films.

Read more, and visit: https://tertill.com/

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AND! As of today the Tertill™ Grow Together Bundle is available (we talked about this in the interview).

Ships the first week of December, while supplies last. 

Tertill’s robotic awesomeness allows the focus of gardening to be the magical experience of growing food rather than the hated chore of weeding. Time in the garden can now be spent planting, watching pollinators at work, and tasting fresh organic vegetables right off the vine. Gardening together creates family memories and teaches valuable hands-on lessons that last a lifetime.

• Tertill™ solar-powered weeding robot
• 10 Plant Guards
• 10 Row Guards
• 10 replacement whacker strings
• Subscription to Grow Together – Enjoy a full year of fun family gardening and Tertill activities
• Weatherproof Decals – Personalize your Tertill with over 40 decals
• DIY Plant Tags – Create unique plant markers with 10 wooden stakes and 6 colorful acrylic paint markers
• Garden Guide– Plan out your perfect family garden using this laminated grid and planting schedule
• Tertill App –Name your Tertill, check its status, and download the latest software

Lizard-inspired amphibious robot runs across the water

The AmphiSTAR robot uses propeller blades to “walk” on water, via new atlas!

The basilisk is also known as the”Jesus Christ Lizard,” due to the fact that it can run across the surface of the water. A new version of an existing type of robot does the same thing, plus it’s capable of traversing rough terrain.

Developed by a team at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the basilisk-inspired AmphiSTAR is the latest member of the institution’s STAR family of robots.

Learn more!

Disney robot with human-like gaze is equal parts uncanny and horrifying!

Disney’s new robot can realistically stare into your eyes,
Via Engadget

Robots with human-like expressions are becoming ever more impressive, but Disney Research might just induce some nightmares with its latest project. Gizmodo reports that Disney has developed a system that gives humanoid robots more realistic gazes and head movements instead of the unnerving stares you often get from automatons. It’s a sophisticated approach that could very well make you more comfortable talking to a robot. Just not this robot — the combination of a skinless shell with realistic eyes and teeth gives it the appearance of a cybernetic zombie, even if the movements are uncannily lifelike.

See more!

Robots will cook sliders in 10 more White Castle locations

Flippy robots will arrive in the 10 more White castle locations in 2021, Via Engadget

Miso Robotics’ Flippy ROAR — that’s short for Robot-on-a-Rail — showed promising results in its pilot with White Castle, enough for the burger chain to sign on to deploying the robot in 10 more locations. The companies announced their collaboration back in July, just as restaurants were forced to limit staff to ensure social distancing while keeping up with the increasing demand for delivery and take out orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. Back in September, they formally started a pilot program to test Flippy at one White Castle location, and the machine has helped serve 14,580 pounds of food and over 9,720 baskets since then.

Learn more!

Robots that we love #MakeRobotFriend @whatrocks

Charlie Harrington, an avid cardboard robot builder, posts a list of favorite robots that includes many favored by us all.

Nintendo R.O.B.

Ed: We at Adafruit have a special place in our hearts for R.O.B., and recreated the codes to have one work without an old CRT tube TV , console, & game – more...

Wall-E

Such personality and someone built a life size version

Johnny 5

From the movie Short Circuit, a quick learner and so much heart.

See the full list here.

Agility Robotics Raises $20 Million to Build and Deploy Humanoid Robots for Work in Human Spaces #Robotics #MakeRobotFriend

Digit is a very real robot that is currently shipping to customers. Designed by Agility Robotic for spaces where humans can maneuver easily but other robots struggle.

Via Business Wire:

Digit, Agility Robotics’ humanoid robot with both mobility and manipulation capabilities, is commercially available and has been shipping to customers since July 2020. Digit builds on two decades of research and development from the team on human-like dynamic mobility and manipulation, and can handle unstructured indoor and outdoor terrain, going where people go. Digit is versatile and can do a range of different jobs that have been designed around a human form factor.

Read More!

Bio-Inspired Robots #Biomimicry

Via ZDNet

Roboticists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) created this centimeter-scale robot resembling a cockroach.

Like the insect from which the engineers drew their inspiration, The Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot (HAMR) can turn sharply and run at high speeds, climb, carry payloads, and survive long drops unharmed.

The real breakthrough with HAMR is the way it moves. Each leg has two actuators, which closely mirror the joints of a cockroach.

Check out more Bio-inspired Robots at ZDNET

Squidbot Snaps Pics Underwater

Propelled by squirting jets of water and trailing LED tentacles, the Squidbot has been designed by engineers at the University of California San Diego to explore the oceans on its own, snapping photos as it makes its squidlike way through the blue depths. Here’s more from the UC San Diego Jacob School of Engineering:

“Essentially, we recreated all the key features that squids use for high-speed swimming,” said Michael T. Tolley, one of the paper’s senior authors and a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego. “This is the first untethered robot that can generate jet pulses for rapid locomotion like the squid and can achieve these jet pulses by changing its body shape, which improves swimming efficiency.”

This squid robot is made mostly from soft materials such as acrylic polymer, with a few rigid, 3D printed and laser cut parts. Using soft robots in underwater exploration is important to protect fish and coral, which could be damaged by rigid robots. But soft robots tend to move slowly and have difficulty maneuvering.

See more!

Tiny Moon Rover is on its Way to NASA for Testing

CubeRover, co-developed with Carnegie Mellon University and Astrobotic, is the lightest commercial planetary rover ever created. More importantly, it is the cutest commercial planetary rover ever created. Here’s more from engadget:

A NASA team at Kennedy’s Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Laboratory will now spend months testing the rover on their simulated lunar surface. The tests will determine what types of slopes, gaps and other surface irregularities the rover can navigate, and drop testing will make sure the rover can bounce around without tipping over. The CubeRover is designed to work with multiple lunar landers, so if all goes according to plan, it will be used on multiple space missions.

See more!

Make Robot Alfred, Not Robot Enemy: A Prorotype Robot Butler

To create truly useful robots for any given situation, engineers know that anthropomorphism can be a trap. Maybe that’s why this prototype butler from Toyota hangs from the ceiling like a creepy two-fingered hand. Here’s more from The Verge:

Toyota says the robot’s design was inspired by trips to Japanese homes, where researchers found that limited floor space would constrain a robot’s ability to help. Their solution was to imagine a future home built with robots directly integrated into the architecture. Building new robot-assisted homes from scratch would create its own problems, of course, but the design itself does solve some issues.

“What if instead of needing a robot to navigate the cluttered floor, it could travel on the ceiling instead, and be tucked out of the way when it’s not needed?” said Dan Helmick, co-lead of robotics fleet learning at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), during a virtual presentation.

See and learn more!

AI Tic Tac Toe Robot TOBOT #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

While ‘idiot’ isn’t one of my favorite words, this project is pretty darn fun! From 3DprintedLife on YouTube:

Meet TOBOT, the Raspberry Pi powered, AI driven bot that plays tic tac toe and WINS every time! How? A camera, a little bit of math, and a whole lot of attitude.

See more

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

A Low-Energy Alternative to Drones: Sloth-Based Robots #drone #droneday

High marks for being one of the cutest drones. Via Core77:

As everyone from farmers to environmentalists have found, airborne drones are fantastic for monitoring wide swaths of land that are too expansive to cover by foot. But they do consume a fair amount of energy, which reduces their deployment time; the mere act of remaining airborne, even if hovering in place and not traveling at speed, requires a steady flow of juice to keep those rotors going. This can be a problem for some applications, as “Energy efficiency is essential in the environmental monitoring world,” explains Gennaro Notomista, a PhD student in the Robotics and InTelligent Systems Laboratory at Georgia Tech, “where processes take place over very long periods of time.”

Read more!

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Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.

An Instrument Made From Teeth from Simone Giertz #MusicMonday

Everyone’s favorite Queen of S***ty Robots, Simone Giertz, has taken a bunch of chattering teeth and turned them into a musical instrument. Here’s more from CDM:

The Swedish roboticist who dubbed herself “queen of s***ty robots” has made a musical instrument out of chattering teeth. But that’s just the start – the toolkit she used has been used on all kinds of new musical inventions.

Yes, you can watch Simone Luna Louise Söderlund Giertz (actual full name) use teeth as robotic instrument…. The machine making this happen is a device that makes musical robotics more accessible – and vastly improves rapid prototyping – at low cost. That’ll be the fiendishly clever dadamachines Automat, the creation of engineer and musician Johannes Lohbihler of Berlin.

Learn more!

Simone Giertz

The Social Distancing Halloween Candy Robot

If you were looking for a safe way to participate in trick-or-treating this year, this candy robot can be helpful!

via dtan19 on instructables

If you’re looking for a fun new way to interact with this years Halloween trick-or-treaters and you’re up for the challenge that this project brings, then jump right in and build your own!

This social distancing robot will ‘see’ when a trick-or-treater walks up, and dispenses a mini candy bar. The project utilizes an ultrasonic sensor as the robot’s eyes.

Read more.

Making the ultimate basketball robot #Robot #Sports

Great video. Stuff Made Here on YouTube made this basketball hoop that tracks and tilts to make sure you never miss. Its fun to watch the process and trial and error!

Thousands have told me that anyone can easily miss my first automatic basketball hoop by missing the hoop entirely. That is a really good point and something that I can’t let stand. In this video I show you how I devoted several weeks of my life to realizing a basketball hoop that makes your shot go in even if you totally miss the hoop…. it was a lot of fun, and quite a bit more challenging than I was anticipating. Hopefully you enjoy it

See more!

A Raspberry Pi Robot Companion @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Inspired by a Raspberry Pi robot made from purely salvaged materials, Nandu Vadakkath has made a robot companion for these times. The robot can follow Nandu around, recognize speech, and get to know Nandu’s friends. Here’s more from Robot Companion:

The global pandemic changed a lot of things. We are more polite now perhaps and more patient. We value things a little more; things like toilet paper. Maybe we don’t take things for granted as much. Why did I write that as an introduction to making a robot? Well, because in more than one way, it was the pandemic that brought about its creation. One morning, during the early days of the Corona virus, when one followed the news maybe a bit too eagerly, I read of a young man in Tamil Nadu who had made a line-following robot (literally) that could wait patiently and purchase his beer for him. All from parts he had lying around, salvaged. ( I am, as Rimbaud said: ‘An exiled inventor more merited than all who have preceded me’. Thank you Rimbaud. I love you to death. You too are responsible for Robot. In some subtle indecipherable way. Time will tell. )

See project!

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

A Self-Balancing Robot with Legs Inspired By Boston Dynamics’ Handle @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Harry at Raspibotics has come up with a self-balancing robot, inspired by the Handle robot from Boston Dynamics. Here are notes on the project from Raspibotics Blog

As a student, I’m on a tight budget so I’ve used off the shelf hobby components that can be bought off of Amazon for cheap. I really wanted to make my design unique as there are already loads of fixed balancing robot projects out there. The addition of servos to manipulate limbs on wheels brings a challenge with a number of benefits. Namely, being able to adjust the height of each leg to remain stable even when tipping from side to side and greater off-road capability as well as even jumping (may need faster servos though). For the wheel motors, 2x 38mm Depth NEMA 17 Stepper Motors are used as they are widely available for 3D Printing and have great precision, hopefully allowing for more stable balancing later on. To move the legs 2 MG996R metal gear servos are used for each leg. These servos can be bought for cheap (more expensive ones may be better suited however) and allow for precise control over their position which is handy when generating an Inverse Kinematics (IK) Handler to move the legs up and down straight later on. I’m also using an Arduino Uno to handle all of the PID calculations that will make the bot balance as it’s better at real-time stuff than the pi.

See project!

NEW PRODUCT – Smart Car Cutebot Robot for micro:bit

NEW PRODUCT – Smart Car Cutebot Robot for micro:bit

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This fully-assembled and ready-to-rock robot smart car is the nicest we’ve seen and is incredibly easy to use with a micro:bit and MakeCode. It comes all ready to go, no soldering or screwdriver required. Simply plug in your :bit into the top slot and add three AAA batteries to get moving.

The Cutebot is a rear-drive smart car driven by dual high-speed motors so it can zip around your floor. It comes with an ultrasonic distance sensor to avoid colliding with walls, two RGB LED headlights and two underlights, two line-tracking light sensors, an active buzzer to make beeps and tones, and various headers for attaching additional servos and sensors.

Note: Does not include micro:bit or AAA batteries. This is just the Cutebot kit by itself!

Click here to visit the tutorial website with 15 projects and ready-to-go MakeCode examples for controlling hardware and getting your bot moving

Features:

• Rear-drive high-speed motors featuring strong, metal-geared N20 motors with 300 RPM max speeds and rubber tires.
• Cute with a small round structure, the PCB body is durable, crash-proof and easy to pick up and move around.
• Only batteries and ultrasonic sensor need to be assembled featuring easy installation. No soldering or tools required!
• Slot for ultrasonic distance sensor and I2C port for additional sensor add-ons on front edge
• Headers for additional servos and sensors on back edge.
• Metal caster wheel
• Flexible and fast movement
• Dual line-tracking light sensors
• Infrared sensor can support optional IR remote control
• Multiple rainbow LEDs!

In stock and shipping now!