iRobot’s new Warrior 700 robot is a bigger version of the PackBot, and can carry and deploy the smaller robot:
The Warrior 700 was recently put through its paces at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) unmanned systems event in Washington, DC. By rising up on the articulated treads, the Warrior was able to extend its arm and drop the PackBot through a window. The PackBot is rugged enough to survive the short drop to the floor, and using the Warrior to deliver it keeps the operators safely out of harm’s way.
After the jump, watch video of an early Warrior prototype in a rescue simulation. (more…)
The Army unveiled a blimp-based missile detection system developed by Raytheon yesterday. The Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Sensor (JLENS) system covers a wider area than sensors not attached to a blimp, and can detect low-flying cruise missiles, Raytheon said.
Vecna has developed a search and rescue robot that can lift about 500 lbs., according to CNET. The Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) has a humanoid upper body, foldable tank treads for legs and Yogi Bear-style ears, but no hat or necktie.
Boston Engineering has posted video on the company’s YouTube page of its Ghost Swimmer autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) swimming in a pool, looking like a tuna.
The biomimetic Ghost Swimmer, which imitates the motion of a bluefin tuna, first appeared in MHT as the RoboTuna. The Ghost Swimmer was developed with about $100,000 in STTR grants.
The Waltham-based R&D engineering firm has been busy lately — in June, Boston Engineering won a $100,000 SBIR grant to develop a version of the AUV to inspect the hulls of oil tankers. Around the same time, the company brought in $70,000 in a Phase 1 SBIR grant to work on giving landlocked reconnaissance robots the ability to open doors.
At the end of July, the company got a $70,000 SBIR grant to develop a robotic platform to catch, service, refuel and relaunch unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Incidentally, whoever came up with the UAV and AUV acronyms either didn’t see the kind-of-similar-but-totally-opposite technologies gaining steam at about the same time, or hates me.
Everybody look up and wave: Raytheon has announced it has an infrared sensor that can keep its 16 megapixel eye trained on an entire hemisphere.
The press release, which says it could be used for a space-based missile warning system, or for meteorology or astronomy applications, makes it sound kind of creepy:
… “When employed as part of a satellite sensor system, the 4K-by-4K will permit full-Earth hemisphere staring with a single focal plane array.”
Raytheon said sensors using the technology would be simpler, since they wouldn’t need scanning mechanisms needed to cover an entire hemisphere.
MIT, Stanford and the Technical University of Munich are working together to develop the Robot Operating System, an open-source OS that could help robots and roboticists collaborate, according to New Scientist:
This desire has its roots in frustration, says Brian Gerkey of the robotics research firm Willow Garage in Menlo Park, California. “People reinvent the wheel over and over and over, doing things that are not at all central to what they’re trying to do.”
For example, if someone is studying object recognition, they want to design better object-recognition algorithms, not write code to control the robot’s wheels. “You know that those things have been done before, probably better,” says Gerkey. But without a common OS, sharing code is nearly impossible.
And from the comments, a possible down side:
Lets hope its 100% virus proof.
Hacked robots could be a problem well before the self aware ones decide to “KILL ALL HUMANS!”
The article is populated by a cast of characters from the New England robotics scene — MIT, UMass Amherst and DigitRobotics’ UBot, Brown researcher Chad Jenkins, and Barrett Technology CEO William Townsend and the company’s WAM arm.
After the jump, watch video of the UBot at the UMass Amherst robotics lab last summer. (more…)
In today’s NewsFlash roundup, Dataupia may not be coming down for breakfast, Genzyme’s Allston problem gets worse, and Drew Bledsoe, VC, makes a cleantech investment.
Just two months after the company cut its staff levels by more than 50 percent, data-warehousing appliance company Dataupia Inc. is seeking to sell its assets, according to an online report.
Former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe’s investment firm has invested $10 million in a Florida water purification technology company. Bledsoe Capital Group, founded in 2007 by the 14-year NFL veteran and Montana attorney Chad Wold, will receive a 33 percent stake in Ecosphere Energy Services LLC, a subsidiary of Stuart, Fla., water engineering and services firm Ecosphere Technologies Inc.
As a result of dumping the unfinished batches of Cerezyme, Genzyme will have to take an $8.4 million write-off in addition to the $14.2 million already announced. (more…)
Wired.com’s Danger Room reports Raytheon has sold its first Active Denial System, the “pain ray” which uses microwaves to push back approaching enemies. Weirdly enough, the defense giant isn’t selling the ray gun to the military, which begs the question: Can anyone buy one of these things?
“Paradoxically, it seems that the controversial ‘pain beam’ may be more acceptable in the civilian market than in the military — depending on how the weapon is used.Certainly, few people would object to the Active Denial System being used for zapping off pirates. The Long Range Acoustic Device, which produces an intense beam of sound, was used to fend off pirates attacking the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit in 2005. But it might be received differently if it was used in a prison or to repel intruders (or protesters) from company property.
…
In the longer run, Raytheon believe that Active Denial might have all sorts of applications in law enforcement, prisons and protecting installations – not to mention chasing geese away from airports. One day a domestic version might even repel burglars.”
Raytheon is developing a smaller version of the ADS, so we should have a whole new sub-genre of YouTube video to look forward to if these things ever shrink to the size of tasers.
Connecticut newspaper the Day reports General Dynamics Electric Boat is working on a submarine that could travel submerged at about 100 knots, or about four times faster than the current fastest sub.
Electric Boat plans to test a version of the DARPA-funded sub off Rhode Island in early 2010:
The technology, if developed, could revolutionize ocean transportation if it could be adapted to cargo and passenger ships.
The vehicle would travel inside a large gas bubble created in the water, a process known as supercavitation. The bubble reduces drag, since the drag is much lower in air than in water, allowing the vehicle to travel at high speeds.
Supercavitation is not new. The technology has been applied to weapons, but never to transport vehicles, according to DARPA.
The Burlington-based maker of mobile field administration software for the architecture, engineering and construction agencies announced in 2007 that it had closed a $6 million Series A. The second close on that fund brings Vela Systems’ Series A to $10.5 million, and its total funding to at least $11.9 million – including a $1.4 million angel round closed in 2006.
The two-year old Chelmsford company is developing plastic polymers that are tough and have high melting points that can be used as flame retardant additives. FRX officials said these materials do not include halogens like traditional flame retardants, making them safer for the environment. The materials can also be used as stand-alone plastics.
Two new sites — Happn.in, and Venturefizz.com, — are offering themselves up as hubs of all things Boston. One is tracking Beantown’s Twitter memes; the other is mapping the Bay State’s high-tech economy by aggregating job postings, company profiles, news feeds and influential tech blogs in one place. (more…)
iRobot’s new Warrior 700 robot is a bigger version of the PackBot, and can carry and deploy the smaller robot:
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