EP.29 BUBBLE-IZED ROBOT FROM TOYOTA
Underwater robot searching for ship wrecks, Accenture joins humanoid race & much more ...
Underwater drone for ocean monitoring! ⚓️
Advanced Navigation, an Australian company, has introduced a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named Hydrus to address the challenge of exploring the global ocean, which remains largely unknown. It is designed to undertake various missions, such as mapping coral reefs and searching for shipwrecks.
Despite its compact size, Hydrus is equipped with advanced technology, including a 4k-resolution camera capable of capturing high-definition video and constructing detailed 3D models. The Hydrus AUV boasts impressive specifications, with a depth rating of 3,000 meters, a range of 9 kilometers, and a battery life of up to three hours.
Moreover, Hydrus simplifies operation with its autonomous navigation capabilities, eliminating the need for tethers and enabling users to program waypoints for independent missions. Its precise navigation and data collection capabilities offer consistent and repeatable results, making it a valuable tool for marine research and exploration.
The adoption of Hydrus by organizations like AIMS demonstrates its potential to revolutionize ocean monitoring and research. With its ease of use and advanced capabilities, Hydrus is poised to become a standard tool for marine scientists.
Even safer robot-human collaboration! 🚧
This research introduces a groundbreaking approach to ensure safe collaboration between humans and robots in industrial settings, where they work alongside each other. The main focus is on efficiently solving complex path-planning tasks in environments that constantly change.
By combining a Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) path planner with a trajectory-based Explicit Reference Governor (ERG), this study presents a robust planning and control architecture. This architecture enables robotic arms to navigate around obstacles, avoid actuator saturation, and respect joint and velocity constraints in real-time. One of the key benefits is the guaranteed avoidance of collisions both with static obstacles and moving human collaborators, fostering a safe and productive working environment.
The proposed framework, validated experimentally on the Franka Emika Panda robot arm, showcases superior performance compared to standalone algorithms. By addressing the challenges of dynamic constraints and local minima, this research paves the way for seamless human-robot coexistence in various industrial scenarios.
Cobotized cobot? 👀
Chinese humanoid to be powered by OpenAI rival Baidu! 🧠
UBTech - a Chinese humanoid manufacturer and Baidu - a Chinese competitor of OpenAI, decided to work together on a new project: making a generative AI-enabled robot. UBTech knows a lot about robots, and Baidu is famous for its AI research, algorithms, and models.
The robot, named Walker S, now integrates Baidu's Ernie for natural language understanding and real-time reasoning. The humanoid is equipped with depth sensors and vision cameras, which help it to perceive and navigate its surroundings effectively. Its advanced 3D object recognition capability enables seamless obstacle avoidance. This robot can talk to you, and it can even understand what you're saying! But that's not all - it can autonomously perform tasks like folding clothes and sorting objects.
Plus, the robot looks really awesome, with its high-tech face and special hands that can grip things. This partnership between UBTech and Baidu is a big deal because it's making robots smarter and more useful than ever before.
Remind me a bit of Figure! 🗿
Meme of the week 🤖
Robotics is not as easy as software!
Control every robot’s joint! 🦾
In this course, participants will delve into joint torque controllers for robot manipulators, using MATLAB and Simulink's Robotics System Toolbox™.
Upon completion, learners will be able to:
Calculate inverse dynamics and design controllers for joint actuators.
Test joint controller performance on position control and grasping.
Apply acquired knowledge to troubleshoot and optimize robot manipulator performance.
Accenture joins the humanoid race! 🏎️
Accenture has decided to put money into a robotics startup called Sanctuary AI. Their robot, Phoenix is special because it can do many different jobs with its hands, which are almost as skilled as a human's.
These robots are powered by a smart system called Carbon, which works like a human brain by remembering things, seeing, hearing, and feeling. Sanctuary AI started in 2018 and now has over 140 employees. Accenture believes these robots could be useful in industries like shipping, manufacturing, retail, and warehousing. Accenture has been investing a lot in robots lately. They've even made a partnership with a Japanese company called Mujin. Geordie Rose, the CEO of Sanctuary AI, thinks that robots with human-like abilities will change how we work in the future.
He believes that by combining Accenture's tech skills with Sanctuary AI's robots, they can help big companies adapt to these changes and find good solutions for their problems. Accenture already has a part of their business focused on robotics, where they help companies with everything from building and using robots to fixing and updating them.
“Bubble-ized” humanoid from Toyota! 🇯🇵
Toyota's Punyo humanoid robot is designed with soft, puffy sleeves that enable it to grasp large and heavy objects with ease. Unlike traditional robots that rely solely on grippers, Punyo utilizes its entire body to interact with objects, mimicking the way humans naturally manipulate things.
Equipped with air bladders covering its arms and chest, Punyo can sense and adjust its grip to securely hold objects. This innovative approach allows Punyo to perform tasks that would otherwise be challenging for robots with rigid manipulators. Its squishy and compliant nature not only facilitates safe interactions with people but also enables it to conform to complex shapes for a more robust grasp.
Despite its softness, Punyo's hug exudes a surprising amount of comfort, reminiscent of a warm embrace from a close friend. As robotics continues to advance, incorporating whole-body manipulation like Punyo's could revolutionize how robots interact with their surroundings, particularly in environments where structured interactions are less predictable.
Read more about this Toyota robot!
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