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Articles
MIT Mediated Matter Group: CNSILK
John Payne
03 May 2012
http://youtu.be/JgeFLGfvrEM
The Mediated Matter Group within the MIT Media Lab, is dedicated to the development and application of novel processes that enable and support the design of physical matte...
Festo ExoHand at Hannover Messe
John Payne
03 May 2012
http://youtu.be/EcTL7Hig8h4
Hannover Messe, the world's biggest industrial fair, took place April 23rd through 27th. Among the many exhibits there were Festo's ExoHand, which connects a glove, with a...
Catching up with robots
John Payne
30 Apr 2012
http://youtu.be/Qh6tCkAGjQA
The video above shows the action of a gear-and-lever assembly designed to operate the legs of the TE+ND Rover, a gardening robot which will be on display at the Bay Area M...
Robots are good but roboticists are better!
Andra Keay
20 Apr 2012
MEGA Startup Weekend proved that you can mix startups and robots together and build new robot businesses. Now we need to work out how to repeat the success. It’s clear now that having real robot pla...
Learning acrobatic maneuvers for quadrocopters
Sabine Hauert
17 Apr 2012
Have you ever seen those videos of quadrocopters performing acrobatic maneuvers?
The latest paper on the Autonomous Robots website presents a simple method to make your robot achieve adaptive fast ...
Mega Startup Weekend with robots
Andra Keay
28 Mar 2012
For the 1st time in startup weekend history, teams are asked to build robot startups in a 54hr challenge. Using just a mockup OR an existing robot platform OR all the robot resources you possess, can ...
Why are we doing this?
Andra Keay
20 Mar 2012
You might think we’re crazy, organizing robot startup events and doing it all as volunteers. But if you know us, then you know that we are passionate about creating new robot businesses, growing new...
Winners of Cloud Robotics Hackathon
Andra Keay
13 Mar 2012
….. straight from Robotics Hackathon HQ…..
(Our CONGRATULATIONS to ALL especially Silicon Valley team OLogic !)
We are very happy to announce the results of the Cloud Robotics Hackathon 2012...
Cloud Robotics Hackathon update
Andra Keay
05 Mar 2012
Lots of hackathon stuff posted on our new Google+ page for Robot LaunchPad so check out all the videos/demos/pix.
More than 60 people showed up to the Hackathon, making us the largest event next t...
Robot Retreat: Rethinking robot startups
Andra Keay
29 Feb 2012
The Robot Retreat hosted by the RobotLaunchPad will be held at blackbox mansions April 28-29. A small group of movers and thinkers in the space of robotics, startups, design and culture come together ...
Cloud Robotics Hackathon
Andra Keay
24 Feb 2012
A good team has a balance of skills including people & design skills, learners and experts. The technical challenge is only one part of building a great robot demo.
1. Build robot
2. Connect...
Modex 2012: Robotic and smart technologies for handling material in factories and warehouses
Frank Tobe
15 Feb 2012
In the emerging world of service robotics, many markets are opening to robotics that were once only handled by industrial robot manufacturers. Safely unmanned, or working alongside human workers, in a...
Robotics Hackathon launch party
Andra Keay
13 Feb 2012
Are you a Bay Area robotics hackathon team or just interested in robot startups?
Join us at the Citrix Startup Accelerator for the launch of the Robotics Hackathon. The Robotics Hackathon is spon...
Divergent views on communicating with machines
Frank Tobe
21 Jan 2012
Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft and Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman, Mercedes Benz
Much of what I saw at CES 2012 was about products being upgraded to “smart” under the premise that smart connec...
Turning robots into products, with Erin Rapacki
Andra Keay
17 Jan 2012
For up to date information about the business of robotics you can’t go past the Robots Podcast from EPFL Switzerland. Every 2 weeks, Robots will take you for a ride through the world’s research la...
iCub drums and crawls using bio-inspired control
Sabine Hauert
17 Jan 2012
Ever see a lizard effortlessly run up a wall?
Like most vertebrates, lizards are able to quickly adapt to new environments in a robust way thanks to a special type of movement generator. The idea is ...
CES 2012 and Consumer Robotics: Informative yet confusing… and bad food!
Frank Tobe
16 Jan 2012
CES 2012 was a mammoth display of the trend toward smart, connected devices for every form of consumer activity: toys, appliances, entertainment, health, mobility, etc. More than 20,000 new products w...
Thoughts on winning startup competitions
Andra Keay
07 Jan 2012
There is a great post at VentureBeat about Ahmed Siddiqui’s extensive experience of startup competitions; winning, not winning, and running them.
How to win a tech conference startup competition...
Cooperative modular satellites
Sabine Hauert
02 Jan 2012
In Modular Space Robotics, modules self-assemble while in orbit to create larger satellites for specific missions. Modular satellites have the potential to reduce mission costs (small satellites are c...
Lean startup methodology for robotics
Andra Keay
07 Dec 2011
The NY Times recently connected lean startup methodology with robotics in a great article by Steve Lohr, Dec 5 2011. One example was Stanford engineering graduate Lee Redden’s Blue River Technology,...
Teaching motion primitives
Sabine Hauert
01 Dec 2011
Finding ways to easily teach service robots new motions will be key to their integration in our everyday environments. Ideally, teaching a robot should be no different than teaching a human.
For examp...
Robotic musicianship
Sabine Hauert
30 Nov 2011
Shimon is an interactive robotic marimba player that can improvise both music and choreography in real-time to the melody of a human pianist.
Playing an instrument does not make you a musician. To bec...
What is ROBOT launchpad?
Andra Keay
17 Nov 2011
How many robot businesses can we make in one weekend?
JUST ADD ROBOTS to a roomful of entrepreneurs
in search of a WINNING STARTUP IDEA!
The ROBOT launchpad connects startup and robotics communities....
Centipede microrobots
Sabine Hauert
12 Nov 2011
Improvements in microfabricaton techniques and an increased understanding of insect locomotion has led to the development of impressive centimeter-sized legged robots. The cockroach-like robots seen i...
Underwater ROV keeps its eye on the target
Sabine Hauert
09 Nov 2011
Underwater robots can be used to inspect water-bound structures such as ship hulls. Remote-operating these vehicles can be tricky if they are under-actuated, meaning you can’t fully control thei...
Learning hand motions from humans
Sabine Hauert
08 Nov 2011
Although human hands have lots of degrees of freedom, we typically don’t use most configurations. For example, we usually don’t move the last two joints of our fingers independently. Now l...
From iCub to artist
Sabine Hauert
12 Oct 2011
Learning how to perceive shapes and act on them is what allows us to interact with our world. Whether it’s grasping for an object, drawing or dancing.
With this in mind, Mohan et al. have been ...
Compliant actuator for 1DOF hopper
Sabine Hauert
26 Sep 2011
For a long time, robots were seen as rigid machines driven by sturdy motors. This raised worries concerning the safety of people interacting with them. One option to make robots safer is to equip them...
Data-driven grasping
Sabine Hauert
12 Sep 2011
As robots enter our industries and homes, they will be required to manipulate a large diversity of objects with unknown shapes, sizes and orientations. One approach would be to have the robot spend ti...
Building topological maps to get around
Sabine Hauert
31 Aug 2011
Service robots entering our homes will need to map their environment and figure out their location as they move around. Previous articles discussed Self-Localization And Mapping (SLAM) approaches that...
Yeti robot avoids snow traps
Sabine Hauert
24 Jul 2011
Have you ever skied down an immaculate white slope? Hard to see the bumps, right?
The same is true for the Yeti robot that needs to drive through polar regions that feature obstacles, slopes and diffe...
Internal models of robot bodies
Sabine Hauert
06 Jul 2011
Robots that have an internal model of their body could potentially use it to predict how a motor action will affect their position and what sequence of actions will bring them to a desired configurati...
Bipedal walker adapts to passenger weight
Sabine Hauert
14 Jun 2011
The HUBO FX-1 is a two-legged robot with a cockpit area to carry passengers. Besides being very entertaining to ride around in, the robot could also be used to help wheelchair-bound people regain mobi...
Any-shape robot formations
Sabine Hauert
02 Jun 2011
Groups of robots that move in precise formations could be used to sense an environment from multiple points of view or navigate a warehouse in a compact manner. The challenge is to build formations in...
Underwater 3D mapping
Sabine Hauert
13 May 2011
We saw the need for good underwater robots during the Deepwater spill last summer. In such scenarios, a remote operator controls a robot equipped with a camera and means to build a 2D map of the envir...
Place recognition and localization with omnidirectional vision
Sabine Hauert
09 May 2011
Let’s say you just purchased a new service robot and you want it to be able to know its way in your apartment. The obvious thing to do would be to show it around, going from room to room saying ...
