EP.36 ROBOT CLEANING UP CIGARETTE BUTTS
Table-tennis playing humanoid, Star Wars-like robot, how much does renting humanoid cost & much more ...
🚨 BREAKING:
Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg will hold their first public conversation about the future of AI at SIGGRAPH 2024. They’ll discuss the role of generative AI in building virtual worlds, and virtual worlds for building the next wave of AI and robots.
The event will be live-streamed and later available for replay on NVIDIA.com.
Jensen Huang will also participate in a fireside chat with Lauren Goode, senior writer at WIRED. They’ll discuss how accelerated computing and generative AI are transforming industries such as manufacturing.
This robot will clean up after you! 🗑️
Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have developed VERO, a quadruped robot dog equipped with a vacuum cleaner backpack and nozzles strapped to its ankles. This innovative robot is designed to seek and eliminate litter, specifically targeting cigarette butts, one of the most common forms of litter.
This robot uses a pair of depth cameras and a convolutional neural network (CNN) to spot cigarette butts on the ground and plan its path to walk over them, switch on the vacuum, and suck them up without stopping. The robot is built on the AlienGo robo-dog platform, a research-grade robot capable of athletic movements.
While VERO is still in its early stages, the concept of an all-terrain autonomous litter-busting robot is promising. The researchers suggest that the robot's attachments could be modified for various tasks, such as gardening or even using a nail gun to tack down planks, potentially saving humans from backbreaking work.
However, the current design has limitations, including the risk of sucking up sand and other debris, and the need for further development to make it practical for real-world use.
Robot playing table tennis! 🏓
Researchers at IHMC, in collaboration with Boardwalk Robotics, are developing Nadia, a next-generation humanoid robot designed to achieve a high power-to-weight ratio and large range of motion. This innovative robot is being developed to operate autonomously and semi-autonomously in urban environments and structures, aiming to match the human range of motion.
The flexibility and agility of famed gymnast Nadia Comăneci inspires Nadia's design. The robot is being developed to navigate challenging indoor environments, including stairs, ladders, and debris, making it ideal for applications such as firefighting, disaster response, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD).
The robot is powered by a combination of electric and hydraulic actuators, including Moog's Integrated Smart Actuators and custom electric motors. With 29 joints, Nadia boasts one of the highest ranges of motion of any humanoid robot, enabling it to reach previously inaccessible areas and achieve an extreme level of mobility.
The Nadia project is funded by several sources, including the Office of Naval Research, Army Research Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, and TARDEC. Once developed, Nadia will be able to function as a human teammate, extending human presence without putting individuals in harm's way
Look how well NADIA is playing ping-pong! :)
Disney’s cutest robot (explained)! 🐿️
Disney Research has developed a bipedal robot inspired by the BD-1 droid from Star Wars. This robot is designed to move with style and personality, combining expressive animations with practical robotic considerations like balance and control commands.
The Disney Research team has created a motion control system that prioritizes both function and form, enabling the robot to operate naturally around people and build trust and connection through body language. The robot's movements are designed to convey a range of character traits, from inquisitive excitement to commanding physical presence.
In a new video, the team demonstrates the robot's capabilities, including its ability to maintain its personality while navigating uneven surfaces and interacting with humans. The robot's design and control system blends artistic intent with practicality, creating a compelling and endearing machine.
Disney's expertise in animation has enabled the development of robots that can bring beauty to movement without compromising function and practicality. While the company's plans for these robots are unclear, they have the potential to feature in live-action Star Wars shows or movies, or even interact with visitors at Disneyland.
Isn’t it the cutest robot of all time? 👀
Meme of the week 🤖
‘Humans are taking our jobs!’ - some robots, ca. 2172
Build a cobot with MATLAB! 🤖
The course explores the development of a collaborative robot system to meet customer needs through a human-robot coworking environment, emphasizing multimodal control and adaptive dynamic control techniques.
Introduction to the need for flexible robotics systems in satisfying diverse customer demands.
Development of a robot hand incorporating multiple sensors using Model-Based Design with MATLAB® and Simulink®.
Integration of virtual and real control structures for seamless implementation.
Demonstration of robot arm modeling, trajectory planning, and simulation using Robotics System Toolbox™ and ROS Toolbox.
How much for a humanoid per hour? 👀
Agility Robotics, the company behind the Digit humanoid robot, has revealed the cost of hiring one of its robots. According to CEO Peggy Johnson, the company is charging a "fully loaded $30 per hour" for its Digit humanoid, with a return on investment (ROI) of under two years for customers.
The cost includes the robot, accessories, and maintenance, and is based on a robots-as-a-service model (RaaS). While the exact number of hours worked by the robots is unclear, the annual cost of running a Digit humanoid would be around $262,800 if it worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With a 40-hour work week, the annual cost would be around $62,400.
Johnson also revealed that the next generation of Digit will be released this fall, with improvements including a increased lifting capacity from 35 to 50 lb, improved battery life, and more units available. The company is also working to improve the ROI for customers, with a goal of increasing the ratio of operating time to charging time from 2-to-1 to 4-to-1 and potentially 10-to-1.
The news comes as Agility Robotics celebrates its first paying customer, Spanx, which is using a "small fleet" of Digit humanoids in one of its warehouses. The robots are being used to pick up totes from autonomous mobile robots and place them onto conveyors, and are orchestrated through Agility Arc, the company's cloud automation platform.
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