In the latest sign that 3-D printing is getting closer to the mainstream, organizers of the 2014 International CES reported yesterday that the technology will be highlighted in a new “3D Printing TechZone” at next year’s show. The annual Las Vegas-based consumer electronics show will feature 20 such market-specific zones. The public profile of 3-D
A team from MIT recently demonstrated its ability to swap autonomy software into autonomous underwater vehicles on the fly, a skill the group says is needed to advance AUV applications and enable rapid mission configuration changes in the field. The demonstration was conducted by MIT’s Laboratory of Autonomous Marine Sensing Systems to showcase the MOOS-IvP
As robots come out from behind their cages to work with humans on production floors and in warehouses and — eventually — inside our homes, we need to be certain we can prevent broken bones caused by machines that don’t know their own strength. Intelligent software and sensors already make it possible for people to
Robotics and autonomous systems are among three key technologies earmarked by the United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer to receive an £85 million investment for capital equipment. The investment comes as part of the government’s £600 million “eight great technologies” initiative, which was outlined earlier this year. Speaking earlier this week at the Global Intelligent
A DARPA-funded team led by Honeywell International Inc. has developed a novel optical fiber design using a hollow, air-filled cores that researchers say could lead to a new generation of high-power sensors. Hollow-core fiber has previously been available from overseas suppliers, but DARPA says its ongoing Compact Ultra-Stable Gyro for Absolute Reference (COUGAR) program has
In order to survive the Great Recession, manufacturers had to get lean. Real lean. And it was painful. But here’s the good news: when things turned around, they held on to those same lean principles as they expanded, creating more efficient businesses in the process. Today they are able to maintain consistently higher levels of
DreamHammer, the company behind the Ballista drone operating system, reported today that it has completed a series of successful demonstrations of its technology with the U.S. Defense Department and UAS prime contractors. The Business of Robotics recently wrote about how Lockheed Martin was able to successfully control multiple unmanned aerial systems using Ballista. DreamHammer says
Maker Camp, a free virtual summer camp for teens, is dedicating today’s lesson to building robots. The session will be hosted by robot creator and blogger RobotGrrl and kid webshow host Super Awesome Sylvia at 2 p.m. eastern at the MAKE+ Google Hangout. Maker Camp offers free daily do-it-yourself tutorials and virtual field trips for
Last week, DARPA and Boston Dynamics unveiled Atlas, the humanoid robot that seven lucky teams won the right to program for the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials in December. They will be competing against a group of teams that created their own search-and-rescue robots, which remain shrouded in considerably more mystery. As we near the competition,
We’re living in an era where low-cost computers, open-source software and crowdfunding have helped democratize the creation and production of robots. Now a new company that comes out of that ethos — its product runs off Arduino boards, it promotes open-source ideology and its origins were on Kickstarter — is trying to do the same for
