Wired talks to Sangbae Kim, of MIT’s Biomimetic Robotics Lab, about his biomimetic robots: The iSprawl, SpinyBot, the StickyBot, and his latest project, the terrifying robotic cheetah pictured above. By mimicking a cheetah, Kim is looking to increase the speed of robots, the fastest of which aren’t that quick on their feet/wheels/paws.
So far, the biomimetic robots pumped out by local researchers have been as fun as anti-landmine technology can be — the Ghost Swimmer, Robofish, RoboLobster, RoboLamprey, RoboClam, even Kim’s StickyBot. I’m still waiting on someone to develop a robot monkey, and we jump all the way to this?
Seriously, this isn’t funny any more, guys. I’m picturing the heavily armed MBTA cops at South Station getting these things to replace their bomb/drug/turnstyle jumper-sniffing dogs. I don’t want that malevolent-looking, 70-mph-running, lightweight carbon-fiber-foam composite piece of death following me down the street at night. Or at noon, either.
Nick Roy and the Robust Robotics Group at MIT CSAIL has developed a helicopter robot called the RANGE (Robust, Aerial, Navigation in GPS-denied Environments) that models its surroundings as it flies, using 3-D cameras and laser scanners.
In what can only be taken as a direct challenge to its landlocked cousin, Boston Dynamics’ kick-resistant Big Dog, the video includes a scene where the robot corrects itself after being poked by a two-by-four.
On the Daily Show, William Kamkwamba talked about building an electricity-generating windmill for his family’s farm in Malawi, using a library book as a guide, at the age of 14. He’s since presented at TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania, and wrote a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
Toward the end of the interview, Kamkwamba explains how he found out about Google, at the TED conference: “I was like, ‘Where was this Google all this time?’”
Tonight is Game 1 of the Red Sox’ five-game divisional series against the Angels, which creates two near-certainties: Another Sox/Yankees ALCS; and “worker productivity” becoming an oxymoron at offices throughout New England tomorrow. This thing doesn’t start till 9:37 p.m., for Hendu’s sake, and postseason baseball tends to go well with alcohol.
But what baseball taketh away, it can also giveth, or whatever. The sport has inspired some nifty innovations in analytics, robotics and … let’s call it life sciences.
MIT News Office photo
• In spring training, the Sox, who even give their IT guy World Series rings, supplemented hitting coach Dave Magadan with the MIT Media Lab, naturally. For the last few years, researchers from the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments Group, has been strapping sensors to minor leagers while they’re batting at the Sox camp at Fort Myers. The info from accelerometers and gyroscopes could provide insight on differences in swing mechanics during a hot streak or a slump.
• Using an arm developed at MIT, University of Tokyo researchers have developed baseball-playing robots that could make the Fall Classic either more interesting, or entirely pointless, to watch. Think of all the time and money the Sox would save on scouting, not to mention free agency. And J.D. Drew would presumably be injured far less often if he were a robot. (more…)
Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Co. tested a prototype of its VASIMR VX-200 plasma rocket last week. The rocket, running at 1.8 million degrees, is a larger version of the plasma rocket MIT researcher Oleg Batishchev developed for satellites to position themselves. NASA plans to test the argon gas-powered rocket on the International Space Station in 2013 in anticipation of using it for a mission to Mars.
Ad Astra CEO/former astronaut/MIT alum/father of state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz Franklin Chang-Diaz developed the technology. The rocket would cut down the amount of fuel needed for a mission, and shorten the trip to Mars to 39 days.
After the jump, watch more video of the rocket, plus the plasma rocket Batishchev made out of a Coke bottle and a Coke can.
If I only had a nickel for every time I typed that headline … Vladimir Bulovic, of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, hooked a pickle up to what looks like a rotisserie spit, and got it to glow like an OLED pixel.
As Bulovic explains, OLED displays are 100-molecule-thick thin films hooked up to electrodes at the top and the bottom.
“The only thing you need to do next, is make sure you have a million individual little devices side by side.”
The gauntlet has been thrown — who among you will build the million pickle TV? MassTLC’s unConference is Thursday — let’s get this thing going as the next X Prize.
The MIT Biomimetics Lab’s “Stickybot“ has footpads that mimic a gecko’s, allowing it to scale walls. The robot could be used in military surveillance and search and rescue.
The biomimetics lab is also working on a robot inspired by the cheetah, according to MIT. Yikes.
At the risk of editorializing, the ice cream was delicious. But whatever, it’s ice cream — if the technology involved a guy in a hollowed-out refrigerator handing out Hoodsies through a mail slot, I’d say the same thing.
Easy there, entrepreneurial community — I’ve already patented that one, though the MooBella exhibition did put into sharp relief the shortcomings of my old startup, hoodZboxx®’s, 2006 demo on the most dangerous street corner in America.
MHT broke the news of MooBella’s existence in 2006, and last week, the BBJ reported the company had landed $18 million in funding from Geneva-based Inventages Venture Capital that will go toward manufacturing its first 100 machines.
MIT economist Esther Duflo, Harvard researchers Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan and Peter Huybers, Yale researchers Richard Prum and Mary Tinetti, and Project HEALTH founder Rebecca Onie each received $500,000 to further their research.
Mahadevan, above tries to answer everyday questions with applied mathematics — how cloth falls, or how skin wrinkles.
After the jump, watch video of the remaining New England grant recipients. (more…)
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