Armed with Science | Tag Archive

Have Two Arms, Will Work

Filed under Robots by jtozer on April 11, 2013 at 7:12 am {no comments}

Who’s ready for some ROBOTS?

DARPA‘s Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program is developing software, hardware and sensors to enable robots to semi-autonomously grasp and manipulate objects in unstructured environments (meaning, “outside of a laboratory”) with human operators providing only task-level instructions.

Simply put, these robots are pretty awesome at doing things outside of the usual robot norm. Like changing your tire, maybe:

Video provided by DARPAtv

For example, rather than dictating step-by-step every movement a robot makes, a human can give DARPA’s ARM robot a high-level command like “Open the door” or “Screw in the bolt.”

Performers on the ARM program have already demonstrated success using one arm and hand to manipulate objects. Now DARPA is having teams test two arms and hands on tasks that require bimanual manipulation, like the robot changing a tire shown in this video.

If DARPA is successful with grasping and manipulation, while also making robots more adaptable to changing environments and driving down the cost of production, robotic manipulation systems can be applied to a wide range of potentially dangerous Department of Defense applications, including defusing improvised explosive devices and searching bags.

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All Hail Homegrown Robots

Filed under Robots, STEM by jtozer on March 10, 2013 at 7:51 am {no comments}

Members of the Owasso Robotics program demonstrate their robot at the recent SAME meeting in Tulsa. (Photo by Nathan Herring)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District and the Tulsa Society of American Military Engineer, or SAME recognized two Tulsa area robotics teams.

During the meeting, each team spoke about their program and demonstrated their robot.

Both had received donations in 2012 from SAME to help fund their robotics projects and competitions. Each team built their robot, programmed it, and used remote controls to control the robot while performing certain tasks, which vary based on which competition circuit they were in.

The 2012 SAME Engineering the Future Grant was awarded to Owasso High School Robotics. The grant provides financial assistance to any program or projects composed of students in middle or high school in Eastern Oklahoma that advances Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, more commonly known as STEM. The Owasso program has such a high level of interest among students that two separate teams represent the school, the Rambotics and Gnomeland Security.

They compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge, a sports-based, friendly competition where opposing teams compete to win points. (more…)

The Phoenix Program

Filed under Space, STEM, Technology, Videos by jtozer on February 22, 2013 at 7:21 am {no comments}

The goal of the Phoenix program is to develop and demonstrate technologies to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, nonworking satellites in GEO and demonstrate the ability to create new space systems at greatly reduced cost.

Phoenix seeks to demonstrate around-the-clock, globally persistent communication capability for warfighters more economically, by robotically removing and re-using GEO-based space apertures and antennas from de-commissioned satellites in the graveyard or disposal orbit.

This video illustrates DARPA‘s Phoenix program and some of the technical progress that has been made since it began in July 2012. As performers demonstrate the progress of their work in a lab, an artist’s simulation of a fully-realized Phoenix demonstration scenario runs in the background to help illustrate how the technology may be applied.

Video provided by DARPAtv, the DARPA YouTube channel

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Saturday Space Sight: Robonaut Operates Task Board in Space

Filed under Photos, Space by jtozer on January 19, 2013 at 7:01 am {no comments}

Hey, it’s my old friend Robonaut in action!

In the International Space Station‘s Destiny laboratory, Robonaut 2 is pictured on Jan. 2, during a round of testing for the first humanoid robot in space. Ground teams put Robonaut through its paces as they remotely commanded it to operate valves on a task board.

Robonaut is a testbed for exploring new robotic capabilities in space, and its form and dexterity allow it to use the same tools and control panels as its human counterparts do aboard the station.

Photo Credit: NASA
From www.nasa.gov

Jessica L. Tozer is a blogger for DoDLive and Armed With Science. She is an Army veteran and an avid science fiction fan, both of which contribute to her enthusiasm for technology in the military.

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Robots On The Front Lines

Filed under Robots, Videos by jtozer on October 11, 2012 at 7:20 am {no comments}

Remote controlled robots are finding their way on the battlefields, serving as improvised explosive device (IED) detectors. I would like to start calling them “battlefield droids” (so please feel free to spread this term around). What may seem like insignificant technology could potentially save the lives of the soldiers put in harms way on routine convoy and ground patrols.

Plus everything’s better with robots, right?

Video provided by AFN Afghanistan

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Math And Science Summer Fun

Filed under Education & Culture by jtozer on September 15, 2012 at 7:28 am {no comments}

Mason Payeur, 12, works on a robot during the Robotics Summer Day Camp at Wiesbaden High School, Germany. (Photo by Wendy Brown, USAG Wiesbaden)

Alex Taylor went back to school this week geared up to appreciate her math and science classes even more than before, all thanks to a Robotics Summer Day Camp held Aug. 13-17, at Wiesbaden High School.

“I like to learn new things and robotics seemed like a really good program,” Taylor said on the last day of the camp. “I have a better understanding of science as it is right now and I’d say that’s great.”

Taylor was one of 31 students to participate in the camp, which taught participants how to build a robot and program it, said Frank Pendzich, instructor of engineering technology at Wiesbaden High School and the camp’s organizer.

He is also adviser to the school’s RoboWarriors team, which competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition each year.

Campers, who were in grades 7-9, also learned the beginning steps of the engineering design process, Pendzich said.

This was the camp’s second year, Pendzich said, and members of the RoboWarriors team acted as camp counselors. In addition, members of the Air Force 485th Intelligence Squadron volunteered, as well as parents.

Taylor, 13, said she was glad to learn not only how to build a robot, but how to program it as well.

Max Johnson, 12, said he enjoyed the camp because he got to build a robot and compete against other campers with it. “I’m interested in robots and computers,” he said, and he plans to learn more about robots in the future.

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DARPA And The Amazing Silicone Color-changing Robot

Filed under Robots, STEM, Videos by jtozer on September 6, 2012 at 7:53 am {no comments}

Hey, haven’t I seen you in a Star Trek (TOS) episode somewhere?

This robot is made of silicone.

It can walk, change color and light up in the dark.

It can even change temperature. And it can do all of this for less than $100. In the future, robots like this might be made for just a few dollars.

In a development to be reported in the August 17 issue of Science, researchers led by Drs. George Whitesides and Stephen Morin at Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering demonstrated that microfluidic channels in soft robots enable functions including actuation, camouflage, display, fluid transport and temperature regulation.

The work is being performed under DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program.

Why does this matter to the Department of Defense? Because it’s an amazing robot that’s why it matters.

DARPA foresees robots of many shapes and sizes contributing to a wide range of future defense missions, but robotics is still a young field that has focused much of its attention so far on complex hardware. Consequently, the costs associated with robotics are typically very high.

What DARPA has achieved with silicone-based soft robots is development of a very low cost manufacturing method that uses molds. By introducing narrow channels into the molds through which air and various types of fluids can be pumped, a robot can be made to change its color, contrast, apparent shape and temperature to blend with its environment, glow through chemiluminescence, and most importantly, achieve actuation, or movement, through pneumatic pressurization and inflation of the channels.

The combination of low cost and increased capabilities means DARPA has removed one of the major obstacles to greater DoD adoption of robot technology.

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Robotics Rodeo!

Filed under Robots, STEM by jtozer on July 22, 2012 at 7:32 am {no comments}

More than 40 vendors and representatives from five universities demonstrated various technologies during the 2012 Robotics Rodeo at Fort Benning, Ga., The Rodeo's third installment, a 10-day event that ended June 29, 2012, featured nearly 75 different technologies in all. (Photo by Ashley Cross)

The Maneuver Center of Excellence put a dose of sci-fi on center stage at the 2012 Robotics Rodeo.

More than 40 vendors and five universities showcased nearly 75 different technologies during the 10-day event at Fort Benning’s McKenna Urban Operations Complex. It kicked off June 20 and ended June 29.

Sponsored by the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, known as TARDEC, and the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO, through the Maneuver Battle Lab, the Robotics Rodeo provides a venue for the military to harness the research and development community’s potential to counter the complex and adaptive threats on today’s battlefield, organizers said.

It brings together the defense, homeland security, academia and industry communities to energize robots in support of the warfighter.

“It’s a great marriage of both industry and academia, which is what we strive for,” said Harry Lubin, the Maneuver Battle Lab’s Live Experimentation Branch chief. “Fort Benning is the proponent for Army ground robotics, so it was a great fit. A difference this year is we focused on specific tactical events.”

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