Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 30.04
…explosive ordnance disposal, or EOD. STARFISH stands for “Strong Tactile mARitime hand for Feeling, Inspecting, Sensing and Handling.” Pittsburgh-based RE2, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corp., said it has successfully assembled and lab-tested a complete gripper capable of grasping and holding a variety of objects. The end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) project is funded through the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR). “STARFISH uses advanced touch sensors and next-generation haptic feedback to provide robot operators with the last link in terms of robotic perception capabilities—the ability to ‘feel’ objects in the environment,” said Dr. Adam Brant, project…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 11.99
…this end, cutting-edge control methods equip the robot with tactile perception and enable it to adapt to ambient conditions.” Researchers needed to ensure that the robot did not damage crops or pull their roots out of the soil. It also needed to meet or exceed the efficiency of humans, who can pick as many as 13 cucumbers per minute. Fraunhofer Institute has developed a dual-armed, cucumber-harvesting robot. Source: igus Robolink proves effective For this application, engineers used an articulated robot arm with up to five degrees of freedom. Called robolink, the product from igus reaches out to 790 mm (31.1…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 25.52
…line of skin-like coverings, which include sensors to provide tactile awareness for humanoid robots and prosthetics. At less than 1 mm thick, RoboSkin fits robotic fingers, limbs, feet, heads, or torsos, to make robots “feel” better, said BeBop Sensors. RoboSkin’s advanced fabric-based sensor skin can be shaped to any surface, allowing quick tailoring to fit any robot, claimed the Berkeley, Calif.-based company. BeBob said its spatial resolution and sensitivity exceeds human abilities for collaborative applications. “I have been working with roboticists refining our RoboSkin for 10 years,” said Keith McMillen, founder and chief technology officer of BeBop Sensors. “We are…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 18.29
…Samantha Johnson, named the system “TATUM,” which stands for “Tactile ASL Translational User Mechanism.” The genesis of the robot began when Johnson took a course in American Sign Language (ASL) in her second year at Northeastern. The course put her in touch with people at the Deaf-Blind Contact Center in Allston, Mass., where she was able to practice signing with the participants in the center. “When I was watching the interpreter sign, I asked, ‘How do you communicate without the interpreter?' and the answer was simply, 'We don’t,’” Johnson recalled. She set out to develop a robot interpreter. An inflatable…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 9.93
…The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company claimed that its software, tactile sensors, haptic intelligence platform, and end-of-arm tooling and food-grade grippers can help transform labor-intensive facilities into “lights-out factories of the future.” RIOS workcells pioneer RaaS RIOS said that it “focuses on the last frontier of automation in factories, in which traditional automation breaks down.” It said its systems are designed to have the dexterity, cognitive skills, and autonomy to tackle hard-to-automate picking and sorting tasks in unstructured environments. The company added that it pioneered the robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) business model, which enables customers to avoid upfront capital commitments in favor of…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 12.31
…allow a novice programmer to approach expert-level programming. Visual Tactile Robotic Surface Inspections Lead: Siemens Partners: GelSight Inc., Carnegie Mellon University, ATI Specialty Alloys and Components, Boeing Description: This project will develop a robotic vision and visual tactile inspection system that automates high-resolution surface defect inspections of spacecraft components and commercial airplane fuselages. These technological improvements could improve the quality of aerospace inspections as well as replace manual operations, said the ARM Institute. The inspection system could also improve the reliability, maintainability, and readiness of aviation assets and ultimately to reduce the lifecycle costs of the fleet. AI and robotics…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 18.61
…said Hussein. “Companies have approached us after trying other tactile sensors on the market,” he said. “Other players such as SynTouch offer impressive capabilities, but their construction is complex and very rigid. Because their sensors are very expensive, they can do sensing only on the edge of the fingertip. To do sensing all over the hand, we can use biotactile sensors.” Touchlab goes for more modalities How close are Touchlab's thin eDermis sensors to human senses? “Lots of sensor companies look at the problem in a primitive way,” said Vasileios Mitrakos, senior electronic skin engineer at Touchlab. “Most sensors on…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 9.95
…Co., HaptX, and Tangible Research responsible for developing the Tactile Telerobot, a high-fidelity dexterous telerobot in use in the U.S., the U.K., and Asia. Competition moves forward “We are very excited to have 15 teams safely moving forward to the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Finals, despite current COVID-19 restrictions,” said Junko Yazawa, senior vice president of All Nippon Airways. “We are really proud of their achievements so far with their innovative avatar technology that will most definitely be an important part of our future in travel and human connections. We look forward to witnessing our dreams come true as the teams…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 15.07
…even smaller,” said Alex Alspach, manager of the Robotics Tactile Team at TRI and the lead developer of the Punyo Soft Bubble Gripper. “By sharing the blueprints for this gripper with the world, we hope that our friends and colleagues can test our technology, improve upon it, and take us closer to building robotic assistants that help to provide independence, dignity, and joy to those with disabilities or age-related challenges.” Established in 2015, the Toyota Research Institute aims to develop active vehicle safety and automated driving technologies, robotics, and other human amplification technology. Led by Dr. Gill Pratt, the Toyota…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 16.88
…avoid bruising. Scientists have recently made progress in developing tactile sensors to enable robots to approach or surpass human-level motor skills and meet growing industry needs. Researchers at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) have been working with the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a prototype collaborative robot with tactile sensor technology. The ability to grasp, lift, and place food items without damaging them also has implications for manufacturing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and ultimately home robots, according to MERL. Robotics 24/7 recently spoke with Daniel Nikovski, manager of the data analytics group; Allan…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 9.18
…used with any type of commercial prosthetic devices. The tactile feedback is available in all the cases. The position feedback is connected to the flexion/extension of the prosthetic knee, so the joint must be present in the prosthetic device in order to be exploited. Could these insights be applied to users of powered exoskeletons or power-assisted prosthetics? Valle: This is exactly what we are now exploring in collaboration with other ETH labs expert in wearable exoskeletons. The fusion of neurotechnology and innovative robotics is the next frontier of rehabilitation. What is next for making neuro-robotic prostheses commercially available? Valle: There…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.84
…is extremely well poised to address this challenge. By using a wide variety of sensing modalities, including our unique tactile sensing capability, and state of the art machine Learning and AI algorithms at the very core of our data processing pipelines, our systems can have a very fine and detailed understanding of their surroundings and their actions. Our agile style of development for both hardware and software enable us to symbiotically develop both for maximum efficiency towards turning around systems for our clients, for whom time to deployment is one of the key metrics that can ensure they remain competitive.