prosthetic knowledge

BionicOpter 

Remote-controlled drone that flies and is in the form of a dragonfly - video embedded below:

With the BionicOpter, Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.

More Here

Robotic Spider Dress 

Techno Couture from Anouk Wipprecht, a dress with insect-like robotic limbs which react to the proximity of others - video demonstration embedded below:

Youtube link

BRAVE ROBOTICS 

A remote control 1/12 scale transformer car / robot. Movement is available in both car and robot forms and can fire missiles from it’s arms. These things have been seen before in Japanese hobbyist robot battles, but this one has a wifi camera fitted in it’s front. Here is a video of it in action:

You can find out more about it at the project’s website here (in both Japanese and English)

Calligraphy robot uses a Motion Copy System to reproduce detailed brushwork 

A week ago I posted the news of a robotic system that can record the brushwork input of calligraphy and technically reproduce it as well as the human artist. Now, DigInfo have a video demonstration of the technology in action:

A research group at Keio University, led by Seiichiro Katsura, has developed the Motion Copy System. This system can identify and store detailed brush strokes, based on information about movement in calligraphy. This enables a robot to faithfully reproduce the detailed brush strokes.

This system stores calligraphy movements by using a brush where the handle and tip are separate. The two parts are connected, with the head as the master system and the tip as the slave system. Characters can be written by handling the device in the same way as an ordinary brush.

Unlike conventional motion capture systems, a feature of this one is, it can record and reproduce the force applied to the brush as well as the sensation when you touch something. Until now, passing on traditional skills has depended on intuition and experience. It’s hoped that this new system will enable skills to be learned more efficiently.

More at DigInfo here

Cooperative Quadrocopter Ball Throwing and Catching 

Smart quadrocopters work together to catch moving objects - video embedded below:

This video shows three quadrocopters cooperatively tossing and catching a ball with the aid of an elastic net.

To toss the ball, the quadrocopters accelerate rapidly outward to stretch the net tight between them and launch the ball up. Notice in the video that the quadrocopters are then pulled forcefully inward by the tension in the elastic net, and must rapidly stabilize in order to avoid a collision. Once recovered, the quadrotors cooperatively position the net below the ball in order to catch it.

Because they are coupled to each other by the net, the quadrocopters experience complex forces that push the vehicles to the limits of their dynamic capabilities. 

Park of the research work carried out by EDH to test mobile robots.

More Here

Papercraft Mechanical Walking Robot 

Ongoing project by kikousya290821 creates a mechanical robot purely from paper and elastic bands - embedded below is a video of the stages of construction:

Here is a video of another attachment - an elastic band Gattling gun:

The project page is in Japanese, but more can be discovered here

Chinese Robo Noodle Chef 

Cuts noodles which ‘are as good as a human chef’, looks menacing - via ZoominUK (video embedded below):

A Chinese restaurateur in Beijing has invented a robot chef to make sliced noodles. The robotic noodle expert is taking China’s noodle bars by storm.

Source

EDIT: chakapanchakapan has informed me of a piece he put together for MOTHERBOARD about the contraption [Link]

Omnibot BattroBorg 20

Newly-announced from Japan is miniature boxing robots controlled with Wii-like motion controllers … I can see this as a potential must-have Christmas craze toy or some type of drinking game challenge …

You can see the (Japanese) Flash animation promoting it here, or read the English Press Release here

BaTBoT 

Project explores possibility of robotic flight, taking design cues from the wings of bats:

The evolutionary process of flying animals exhibits significant skeletal structure adaptations such as, large material property gradients and variations the development of extreme adaptations (bats wings are essentially equivalent to hands).

Although observing and gaining inspiration from these animals can provide significant insight into the physical requirements of flapping flight, it remains an engineering challenge to develop equivalently effective flapping wing vehicles.

The Fluid Mechanics Laboratory and the Swartz Lab at Brown University, have been carrying out a remarkable research about the understanding of in-vivo Bat flight aerodynamics. Using wing-tunnel testing and performing motion capture by tracking markers located along the bat body and wings, high-speed cameras are used to provide an insight of bat flight behavior.

In collaboration with Brown University, this research is oriented towards the development of a biological inspired bat robot platform, that allows to reproduce the amazing maneuverability of these flying mammals. The highly maneuverability is achieved by reproducing the flapping and morphing capabilities of their wing-skeleton structure. This structure is composed by several joints and a membrane that generates the required lift forces to fly. 

More information can be found at the project’s site here

Surface Gundam by 송송 작가님

A tall, standing Gundam replica created entirely with flowers.

Piccolo

Small CNC bot, potential drawing machine for only $70. As you can see in the video below, it is capable of some interesting things:

Piccolo is a pocket-sized stand-alone CNC platform. For under $70, you will be able to assemble your personal Arduino-compatible kit for tinkering, and playing with basic CNC output. Be it plotting a quick graffiti, printing a one-off business card on the fly, or multiple Piccolos working together to create a large mural, this kit provides a platform for experimenting with 2D or 3D digital fabrication at a small scale.

We are currently refining the Piccolo prototype into an open-source design that is simple, quick to assemble, and easy to use, and is entirely composed of digitally manufactured components and inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware.

The Piccolo project includes Arduino and Processing libraries, to use Piccolo in a variety of ways such as moving autonomously or responding to sensors and data, whilst providing an accessible educational tool and a new output for Processing sketches.

Piccolo isn’t available yet, but you can be notified via their website here