robotics planet

Disposable Drones Will Collect Data by Surfing Along with Hurricanes

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ieeespectrum/automaton/~3/90AZuyz403U/disposable-drones-will-collect-data-by-surfing-along-with-hurricanes

 − at 15:15, 18. Jun. 2013

Swarms of cheap, tiny drones will surf the wind and waves to study hurricanes

Robots Podcast #132: The OpenROV Project

http://robots.net/article/3597.html

 − at 02:40, 17. Jun. 2013

In Robots Podcast #132, reporter Ron Vanderkley speaks with Eric Stackpole and David Lang from the OpenROV project. OpenROV (OPEN-source Remotely Operated Vehicle) is a telerobotic submarine built to make underwater exploration and education affordable. Initially funded out-of-pocket, OpenROV has become a wildly successful Kickstarter project. Eric currently works part-time for NASA at the Ames Research Center. David also writes the Zero to Maker column for the MAKE Blog, where he chronicles his crash-course into the maker world.

Read On | Tune In

Has Your Robot Driven a Ford Lately?

http://robots.net/article/3596.html

 − at 21:24, 16. Jun. 2013

While other companies are working to develop fully autonomous vehicles, Ford has been working on a slightly different problem. According to a news release, they want robots to drive their traditional human-piloted vehicles on the test track. Robot test drivers could stay on the road 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ford is launching a pilot program with a robot test driver for their 2014 full-size commercial Transit van. A single human can monitor up to eight simultaneous robot test drives. From the Ford news release:

“Some of the tests we do on our commercial trucks for North America are so strenuous that we limit the exposure time for human drivers,” says Dave Payne, manager, vehicle development operations. “The challenge is completing testing to meet vehicle development time lines while keeping our drivers comfortable. Robotic testing allows us to do both. We accelerate durability testing while simultaneously increasing the productivity of our other programs by redeploying drivers to those areas, such as noise level and vehicle dynamics testing.”

The robotic technology used to drive the Ford vehicles comes from Autonomous Solutions, Inc.. The Ford test track is designed to compress 10 years of driving abuse into a small course. The robots must repeatedly drive trucks over broken concrete, cobblestones, metal grates, gravel, mud pits, curbs, and speed bumps. the course is so rough that human drivers were limited to one drive per day. Read on to see video and more photos of the robot test drives.

Is Anki the Hottest Robotics Company You've Never Heard Of?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ieeespectrum/automaton/~3/MoepvcJ0NLE/robotics-startup-anki-drive-real-world-video-game

 − at 15:10, 14. Jun. 2013

The startup unveils its first product: a "real-world video game"

Robots: The OpenROV Project

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robotspodcast/~3/u1TLlwA1LXE/

 − at 09:00, 14. Jun. 2013

In the episode, we speak with Eric Stackpole and David Lang from the OpenROV project about their telerobotic submarine built to make underwater exploration and education affordable.

Video Friday: Quadrotor Acrobatics, Telerobotic Pitcher, and RoboRoach

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ieeespectrum/automaton/~3/OSws_wm9oNE/video-friday-quadrotor-acrobatics-telerobotic-pitcher-roboroach

 − at 06:00, 14. Jun. 2013

We could devote our entire Video Friday to quadrotors this week, but we've thrown all the rest of the robots in too, absolutely free

This Robot Wants to Beat You at Air Hockey

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ieeespectrum/automaton/~3/LF4mVnwtFPE/japanese-air-hockey-robot

 − at 20:44, 13. Jun. 2013

It adapts to your playing style, and wants to get on your nerves

Simplifying the process of mapping and modeling with low cost sensors

http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2013/06/13/simplifying-process-mapping-and-modeling-low-cost-sensors

 − at 17:48, 13. Jun. 2013

During his internship at Willow Garage, Alex Ichim, from EPFL Switzerland concentrated his efforts on simplifying the process of using off-the-shelf RGB-D cameras to capture objects and rooms in 3D. In contrast to other proposed systems utilizing low cost sensors, his goal was to leverage the geometric information gathered from the depth camera as much as possible, without the need for RGB cameras to align elements together in space. The result is comparable to more complex state-of-the-art SLAM algorithms that use color features.

To help with the captre of 3D information, Alex and his team present a system that makes use of geometric features such as planar regions. Planes are used for different purposes ranging from noise removal, alignment of pairs of frames, and global error relaxation within the captured information. In addition, much of their effort was spent with enhancing the different stages of point cloud registration by implementing and benchmarking techniques such as filtering, normal computation, correspondence estimation, and filtering. 

At the end, his team refined how the collection of 3D data can be transformed into a compressed representation, such as colorized 3D models. Such a system opens a lot of possibilities given the simplicity of the setup, ranging from scanning small objects such as toys, larger items such as cars, going all the way to reconstructing entire rooms. Once captured, the models can be converted into physical form using off-the-shelf 3D printers.

A thorough evaluation of possible RGB extensions of the application are left for future work. In the meantime, a complete analysis of the components of the system, as well as implementations are available online at www.pointclouds.org.

For more information about Alex's work, check out his thesis (PDF) and presentation (PDF).

Video: Drones, Quadrupeds, Humanoids, and More Robots From ICRA 2013

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ieeespectrum/automaton/~3/bJBMcLc6EeE/video-robots-from-icra-2013

 − at 16:57, 12. Jun. 2013

Here are all the robots you may have missed at ICRA conference

ROS OS Usage Survey Posted

http://www.ros.org/news/2013/06/ros-os-usage-survey-posted.html

 − at 08:35, 12. Jun. 2013