Uses for tiny flying robot bugs will mostly include reconnaissance missions for military and law enforcement applications. DARPA currently has incentives for creating these little machines for military purposes. The advantage of being so small is that it could enter buildings and houses and fly through the rooms and be equipped with full micro surveillance technology.
Cyborg insects with embedded Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) will run RC remotely controlled reconnaissance missions for the military, if its ‘”Hybrod Insects-MEMS” program succeeds. The HI-MEMS program hatched earlier this year at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to develop cyborg bugs to patrol, gather intelligence, and carry out other significant surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Some individuals are worried that these robot bugs could possibly be used in an invasion of personal privacy and a possible threat to civil rights. If the government starts using these robot bugs to spy on political activists that could lead to problems. However, there is little information about spy technology so we will possibly never know for sure.
So far experts say the technology isn’t quite good enough to produce such devices that actually function at a usable level. Most likely our technology will be there shortly, so we’ll have to just wait and see what comes out of it. Hopefully these little robot insects will by restricted to military reconnaissance, which would be a revolutionary way to perform investigations without risking the lives of our military soldiers. Crawling robots for reconnaissance are getting better, but a flying machine would greatly increase speed and access comparatively.
The Solidworks 2009 Beta Release is expected to be released soon. The Beta program for Solidworks 2009 will officially launch in early June 2008. The Beta teasing is scheduled to start later this year than for the previous year because Solidworks noticed people lost interest over such a long duration of Beta testing. This year’s program will shrink down from a 15 week period to an 8 week program.The Solidworks 2009 Beta test program is set up so that Solidworks users across a variety of industries can help to make the final build of the Solidworks 2009 software as good as possible when it is finally released. This year the Beta program will be available to everyone via the Solidworks Customer Portal on the Solidworks website. (As of the day this was typed the Solidworks 2009 Beta is not yet released for testing) Some incentive for being part of the Solidworks 2009 beta test program is that Solidworks gives points for every glitch and bug found in their software. After, Solidworks gives away free stuff to people with a lot of points. Some of the top contributors to the Solidworks 2009 Beta test program win a free copy of Solidworks! Buying Solidworks yourself can run around $5,000 so it’s a nice prize if you ask me! More information will be released soon.
For those of you addicted to fighting robots, the RoboGames 2008 is that place you have to be! The RoboGames are an annual event that take place in the US in San Fransisco, California. The RoboGames 2008 will be holding over 70 different competitions all for different types of fighting robots, sports playing robots, and even for autonomous competitions. There are categories for all types of robots including LEGO Mindstorms and even BEAM robots! The competing robots are programmed using all sorts of different microcontrollers including the Parallax Propeller. You too can also enter your own personal robot into Robogames, there are divisions for every kind of robot. RoboGames is the world’s largest open robot competition! This is even recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records!
Just when you thought the Fabaloo DIY Fab@Home 3D Printer machine was a big sticky mess by squirting goo onto things, there is a new even more sticky 3d Printer design you have to see. The CandyFab 4000 machine by a company called Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories is a DIY 3D printer that utilizes hot air and sugar to craft real life 3D objects. The low-cost method used in this 3d printer is called Selective Hot Air Sintering and Melting (SHASAM). The printer uses sugar as a powder they is laid onto a flat bed in thin layers, then the CNC hot air blower melts the sugar wherever the 3d computer model has a solid body. As each layer finishes a new layer of sugar is put on and the process is repeated until the entire model is complete. After completed, the heated and melted sugar is very hard and glassy. The finished object is a bit rough on the edges, but can be smoothed out. The 3d sugar printer can fabricate fairly large scale objects.
The software for the CandyFab 4000 3D printing machine is designed to be open source for the DIY do it yourself home builder. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories wants this project to be available for interested hobbyists who want an alternative more affordable rapid prototyping machine. The open source software makes this a project that other people can help improve as well. Hopefully in the near future the designs will be greatly improved with higher resolution prototypes.
The CandyFab 4000 printer is the cheapest 3d printer available today, the total cost of building this 3D printer is only around $1000 plus some spare parts laying around. That is much less than any other design out there. And not only that, you can build it yourself! There are even 3D Google Sketchup models available online for free. All you have to do is order the parts and send some of the parts to local machine shops to make the parts and then you have you very own personal 3d Printer! I think it’s a great project because the materials are so affordable! At the cost of only $1000 you could even build more than one! B)
Here is a clip where Paul Merton is in China visiting Mr Woo who designs robots at his home out of junk and rubbish or whatever recycled junk parts he finds laying around. Mr. Woo’s robots are quite inventive, he even designed a 2 legged robot capable of pulling himself around in a rickshaw cart. However, most of Mr. Woo’s robots appear to be innovative, but fairly unconventional. Mr Woo is a rural Chinese farmer who taught himself to build fun kinetic robots. He has no money, no education, and no decent materials to work from but he ends up making pretty sophisticated and quirky-looking robots that can walk, pour tea, and best of all, pull a rickshaw. They are even quite hilarious, he gets great kudos for imagination. >D His wife hates it, but isn’t that always the case with every inventor?
The Robo-One competition is a competition between biped humanoid robots. The competition typically consists of various battles between the robots that test the capabilities of each.
ROBO-ONE 14 is scheduled for October 11th – 12th, 2008.
Here are a few pics Of past Robo-One competitions:
BigDog is one of the next generation military assist machines in development right now. Big Dog is a research and development project by Boston Dynamics. The Big Dog project is funded by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Boston Dynamics claims Big Dog is the most advanced quadruped robot on earth. BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble and carries a 340 lb load. BigDog can even walk over terrain such as ice and snow to reach its destination. It also has amazing balancing skills, in the video you can watch someone kick Big Dog from the side and it knows how to recover itself without falling over. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight. This is an amazing robot, when the final production model makes it to the troops it will be a huge help in areas where it is unsafe for people to travel. From the U-Tube description
“BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog’s legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.”
Go Monty! You can do it!
This robot named Monty is a dynamically balancing robot designed and built by Trevor Blackwell of Anybots Inc. This robot has been trained to throw and catch a ball. It appears to drop the ball often, but the robot Monty does catch the ball when Trevor Blackwell throws it. I think this robot is cool because it not only balances on 2 wheels, it also is able to catch a ball with it’s mechanical robot hand and throw it back without falling over.
PropellerCode.com is proud to announce the new addition of free 3D Solidworks Models of various hardware and Electrical Components.
We feel it is important that you design your robots with the best tools avaliable! That is why we here are PropellerCode.com are now releasing these 3D Solidworks models to you free of charge! How could you ask for more!?!
On the main 3D Solidworks models page you will find Solidworks models in native Solidworks 2008 format. The files are all in .sldprt format for your ease of use!
Lost in Space has got to be one the most classic robot shows ever made. Here is an Old-School video that I believe was done quite well. The Song is called The Robots by Kraftwerk.
