Robot Tuesday - Robots vs Pirates

In what can only be described as awesome, ReconRobotics has developed a robot which is used to fight pirates. That's actual pirates, which are almost like what you're thinking of but more modern and with better guns. The ReconScout Throwbot, a throwable robot which could not possibly have a better name, is a one-pound remote-controlled device equipped with a camera, which can be thrown on board a passing ship, and moves itself around and up metal walls using its magnetic wheels, to send back video footage and information about the size of pirate crew and how well-equipped they are, before pirate-fighting forces board the ship.

This article from Discover Magazine, which has a short video of the little dude in action, also says, "The Throwbot can take useful video even if it's pitch black below decks, using infrared illuminators. ReconRobotics is also developing a marsupial robot deployment system, which is exactly what it sounds like: a big robot that carries around the recon robots, then shoots them out with high precision when the time comes." Which is a shame, because I was seriously hoping they'd be deployed by ninjas riding unicorns.

Robot Monday - Robots with balls round-up

Here's a quick rundown of some recent excellent videos featuring robots, balls and/or robots with balls.

Quadrocopters Juggling

A quadrocopter is a square flat dude which has a set of rotor blades providing lift at each corner. This means that it can precisely control its position, whether by remote control, or (and this is where we get interested) using an in-built AI. Some awesome videos of quadrocopters being awesome can be found here and here. But most excitingly, someone has stuck on some badminton racket heads, and taught a couple of quadrocopters to juggle a ball! They're not perfect, and do drop it a couple of times, and what they're doing isn't strictly juggling, since they're just hitting it back and forth, but the implications for automatic badminton training machines are mind-blowing.



Rollin' Justin

In what can only be described as an attempt to replace your dad, scientists at the German Aerospace Centre have developed a robot that can play catch, and prepare coffee. It has the ability to detect an incoming object and move its arm to make a catch, including catching two balls at once with different hands. It also has sufficient fine motor control to handle the putting of the little cartridge thing into the coffee machine and making a coffee. Now, if they could only develop a robot which could make me some tea...



Balancing Robot

And finally, since all good robot roundups come in threes, here's a robot which can balance precisely on top of a ball. Despite a tantalising initial shot of it holding a stack of glasses of water on top of itself, whilst maintaining uprightness, the rest of the video demonstrates the practical uses of such an amazing robot, such as carrying heavy weights, and my favourite 'omnidirectional wheelbarrow'. It's quite a nice idea, since the ball isn't part of the robot, so could be replaced if it gets damaged. I can totally see humans learning to ballroom dance with tall versions of these guys. In suits. Robot suits.