EurekAlert November 18, 2020 An international team of researchers (Hong Kong, China) has constructed millirobots by coating inanimate objects with a composited agglutinate magnetic spray. The technique enables a variety of 1D, 2D, or 3D objects to be covered with a thin magnetically drivable film (~100 to 250 micrometers in thickness). The film is thin enough to preserve the original size, morphology, and structure of the objects while providing actuation of up to hundreds of times its own weight. Under the actuation of a magnetic field, the millirobots are able to demonstrate a range of locomotive abilities: crawling, walking, and […]
Tag Archives: Autonomous systems and robotics
New drone technology improves ability to forecast volcanic eruptions
Science Daily October 30, 2020 An international team of researchers (UK, Italy, Costa Rica, Sweden, Germany, USA – Michigan Tech. University, University of New Mexico, Canada, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand) has shown that aerial measurements of volcanic gases using unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) transform our ability to measure and monitor plumes remotely and to constrain global volatile fluxes from volcanoes. They combined multi-scale measurements from ground-based remote sensing, long-range aerial sampling, and satellites to construct comprehensive gas fluxes emitted by previously uncharacterized volcano Manam in Papua New Guinea. Their data emphasize the need to account for time averaging of […]
Researchers invent flexible and highly reliable sensor
Science Daily November 2, 2020 Real-time health monitoring and sensing abilities of robots require soft electronics. Unlike rigid devices, being elastic and pliable makes their performance less repeatable due to hysteresis. Researchers in Singapore have developed a sensor, Tactile Resistive Annularly Cracked E-Skin (TRACE) which addresses the trade-off between sensitivity and hysteresis in tactile sensors when using soft materials. They discovered that piezoresistive sensors made using an array of three-dimensional metallic annular cracks on polymeric microstructures possess high sensitivities, low hysteresis over a wide pressure range and have fast response. They have demonstrated that TRACE sensors can accurately detect and […]
Researchers use flying insects to drop sensors from air, land them safely on the ground
TechXplore October 8, 2020 In addition to the challenges of achieving low-power consumption and long-range communication, airdropping wireless sensors is difficult because it requires the sensor to survive the impact when dropped in mid-air. Researchers at the University of Washington designed insect-scale wireless sensors that come fully integrated with an onboard power supply and a lightweight mechanical actuator to detach from the aerial platform. The 37 mg mechanical release mechanism can drop the sensor during flight, using only 450 μJ of energy as well as a wireless communication link that can transmit sensor data at 33 kbps up to 1 […]
A soft robotic insect that survives being flattened by a fly swatter
Science Daily December 18, 2019 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, France) developed a soft robot called DEAnsect and equipped with dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). They developed two versions: the first, tethered using ultra-thin wires, is exceptionally robust. It can be folded, hit with a fly swatter or squashed by a shoe without impacting its ability to move. The second is an untethered model that is fully wireless and autonomous, weighing less than 1 gram and carrys its battery and all electronic components on its back. This intelligent insect is equipped with a microcontroller for a brain and photodiodes as […]
AI learns to design
Science Daily November 6, 2019 A team of researchers in the US (Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State University) has implemented a two-step framework that learns to imitate human design strategies from observation to generate designs without any explicit information about objective and performance metrics. It is trained to imitate a set of human designers by observing their design state sequences without inducing problem-specific modeling bias or extra information about the problem. It is designed to interact with the problem through a visual interface as humans did when solving the problem. The designs generated by a computational team of these agents […]
Swarm of tiny drones explores unknown environments
Science Daily October 23, 2019 An international team of researchers (the Netherlands, UK) developed the swarm gradient bug algorithm (SGBA) that allows a swarm of tiny flying robots to autonomously explore an unknown environment and subsequently come back to the departure point. It maximizes coverage by having robots travel in different directions away from the departure point. The robots navigate the environment and deal with static obstacles on the fly by means of visual odometry and wall-following behaviors. They communicate with each other to avoid collisions and maximize search efficiency. The robots perform a gradient search toward a home beacon […]
Tiny vibration-powered robots are the size of the world’s smallest ant
Nanowerk July 17, 2019 Using two-photon polymerization lithography researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed and 3D printed micro-bristle-bots consisting of a piezoelectric actuator glued onto a polymer body. The actuator generates vibration and is powered externally, a piezoelectric shaker beneath the surface on which the robots move, from an ultrasound/sonar source, or even from a tiny acoustic speaker. The springy legs go up and down, propelling the micro-bot forward. Each robot can be designed to respond to different vibration frequencies depending on leg size, diameter, design and overall geometry. The amplitude of the vibrations controls the speed […]
The RoboBee flies solo
Science Daily June 26, 2019 Researchers at Harvard University have demonstrated a sustained untethered flight of an insect-sized 90-milligram flapping-wing microscale aerial vehicle. It uses four wings driven by two alumina-reinforced piezoelectric actuators to increase aerodynamic efficiency and achieve a peak lift-to-weight ratio of 4.1 to 1. The integrated system weighs 259 milligrams, with an additional payload capacity allowing for additional onboard devices. Consuming only 110–120 milliwatts of power, the system matches the thrust efficiency of similarly sized insects such as bees…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
DJI Promises to Add “AirSense” to Its New Drones
IEEE Spectrum May 22, 2019 DJI, a drone manufacturer in China, has announced that after January 1, 2020 all drones manufactured by the company that weigh more than 250 grams will include AirSense technology, which receives ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) signals from nearby airplanes and helicopters and warns drone pilots if they appear to be on a collision course. Until now AirSense was available only on some professional-grade DJI drones. The move sets a new standard by putting professional-grade aviation safety technology in drones available to everyone…read more. Video