An operator remotely driving a forklift using technology from Phantom Auto. | Photo Credit: Phantom Auto As the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred warehouse and logistics operators all over the world to implement social distancing policies, the work-from-home trend is spreading to an unlikely occupation – material handlers. The post Scaling teleoperation of next-gen material handling […]
The new mobile collaborative robot from Desmasa enables placement of a cobot arm anywhere within a facility | Photo credit: Desmasa Spanish automation integrator Desmasa launched a mobile manipulator platform that it described as a “mobile collaborative robot” (MCR). The design enables the movement of the entire platform so that a collaborative robot (cobot) arm […]
This quadruped relies on a series of valves that open and close in a specific sequence to walk. | Credit: UCSD Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The quadruped only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its […]
Woodside Energy’s Ripley robot uses reinforcement learning to perform manipulation tasks. | Credit: Amazon Amazon launched SageMaker Reinforcement Learning (RL) Kubeflow Components, an open-source toolkit designed to help manage robotics workflows. SageMaker RL is designed to make it faster to develop machine learning capabilities for everything from perception to controls and optimization. The post Amazon […]
OnRobot’s VGP20 electric vacuum gripper can be used in palletizing applications. | Credit: OnRobot After a busy year product-wise in 2020, OnRobot today released its first new end-of-arm tool (EOAT) for 2021. The VGP20 is an electric vacuum gripper that can handle payloads of 20kg (44.09lbs). OnRobot said the VGP20 is “compatible with all leading […]
Loop-X is a fully robotic mobile intraoperative developed by Brainlab. | Credit: Brainlab The recent availability of these robotic medical devices is bringing a futuristic vision of the modern digital operating room closer to reality supporting surgeons in their day-to-day work and bringing benefits to their patients. The post Brainlab receives FDA clearance for surgical […]
Insects’ acrobatic traits help them navigate the aerial world, with all of its wind, obstacles and uncertainty. | Credit: Kevin Yufeng Chen If you’ve ever swatted a mosquito away from your face, only to have it return again (and again and again), you know that insects can be remarkably acrobatic and resilient in flight. Those […]
In September 2020, Clearpath Robotics released a ROS package for Boston Dynamics’ Spot quadruped. The idea was to allow robotics researchers to leverage ROS capabilities out-of-the-box, as well as open-source libraries, tools and the greater ROS community to accelerate their robotics development. For robotics developers who want to install ROS on Spot, Clearpath has compiled […]
MIT developed ‘robomorphic computing, an automated way to design custom hardware to speed up a robot’s operation. | Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT There are three main steps in a robot’s operation, according to Neuman. The first is perception, which includes gathering data using sensors or cameras. The second is mapping and localization: “Based on what […]
Army researchers identified ways to make small drones, like PUMA, quieter. | Credit: Sgt. Hillary Rustine It’s no secret the U.S. Army wants its small unmanned aerial systems to operate quietly in densely-populated regions, but tests to achieve this can be expensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive according to researchers. Editor’s Note: This article was republished from […]
