In an era where energy costs have become a focus of attention, many people have authored articles with reducing energy as their theme. Saving money is always a good thing. Perhaps we can gain a little clarity on where the real savings are. Start with the big loads. Plant air handling, building HVAC and […]
Help for independent scientists and early-stage companies developing radical ideas
Peter Thiel, of Google’s driverless car fame, launched Breakout Labs, a new program to help independent scientists and early-stage companies develop their most radical ideas. Funding agreements range from $50,000 to $350,000 depending on the nature of the project. Breakout Labs uses a revolving funding model where successful projects help fund the next generation of…
Emerging Underwater Businesses: Three Companies to Note
By Frank Tobe. Publisher, The Robot Report Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Sentry ROV We’ve read about their use in last year’s Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill and their underwater repair work, traipsing the corridors and collecting rubble at Fukushima nuclear power plants, the exploits of James Cameron and his amazing underwater photos and movie…
Emerging Underwater Businesses
ROVs repairing underwater oil rigs; treasure hunters finding $230 million in silver; recovering the black box from a crashed airline; tracking sea creatures – these are just a few of the non-defense/security uses of unmanned maritime systems and devices. iRobot, Liquid Robotics and Teledyne Technologies all have maritime operations and each are profiled in this…
What is Control – Part 2
While considering the nature of control we tend to focus on the two big issues; hardware and software. This is very understandable since hardware selection has a lot to do with cost and functionality. Software has more to do with how we program the hardware to execute the tasks that the control system is intended […]
What is Control?
‘Control’ is a term for the use of binary calculation methods to execute a process or task. I suspect it is as ambiguous a term as ‘mechatronics’. I suspect that we cannot even agree on what control is, without getting into some depth on the all the possible definitions of the subject. This is rather […]
Servo Tuning
There are many opinions about servo tuning. Every engineer who has ever worked with servo motors has experienced the difficult process of tuning the motor. The difficulty is in the fact that the rules about tuning are hard to apply, because every situation is a little different. Considering the rules for servo tuning first, the […]
iWalk expanding availability of lower limb bionic prosthetics
MIT spinoff iWalk now producing a leg system that replaces the combined functions of the foot, ankle and calf regions of the human body for amputees. Prosthetic emulates or even augments physiological function through electromechanical replacement.
MS Donates 2,500 Kinects to F.I.R.S.T.
The Kinect sensor will be a valuable enhancement to the FIRST robot competition experience. Teams will be able to either program their robots to respond to their own custom gestures, or use default code and gestures. The Kinect sensor includes a depth camera and both video and audio sensors to capture video data in 3D.…
Five Finalists Chosen for RoboBowl Healthcare Robotics Competition
Five finalists in the RoboBowl next-generation competition for healthcare robotic devices hosted by CMU were announced. Each wins $5,000. The best of the five wins another $20,000. Proposals include (1) personalized video games and robotics for stroke and trauma patients; (2) toy-like robots that therapeutically interact with autistic children; (3) providing low-cost robots for STEM…
More Measurement and Motion
For all the measurement technology we have available there are some elements of motion control that are generally missing. We have laser interferometer measuring tools that are accurate to a fraction of 1 micron. There are rotary position sensors that can divide a circle into a million digital positions. Many of the semiconductor industry’s processes would […]
James Cameron wins Popular Mechanics’ 2011 Leadership Award
Cameron wins Breakthrough Leadership Award not only for technologies he has pioneered for his movies, but for his other explorations in providing 3D cameras for NASA’s next Mars rover, for underwater exploration, shipwreck hunting, and for ROVs engineered and used for his movies. Says Cameron, “I believe in exploration.” AeroVironment and DARPA’s Robotic hummingbird also…
Robotic Gift Suggestions for the 2011 Holiday Season
This holiday season, people are looking to get their money’s worth from gift giving. Gifts need to be either truly phenomenal, practical or inexpensive. In the phenomenal category, what’s more exciting than getting a robot as a holiday gift? The Robot Report, a site which tracks the business of robotics, has prepared this list of…
Notes from IROS 2011 San Francisco
San Francisco city view from aboard the IROS 2011 sunset dinner cruise party boat By Frank Tobe. Publisher, The Robot Report The week long IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2011) was host to more than 1,500 roboticists and robot-interested people from 40 different countries, including a prominent group of well-known speakers and…