Important Innovations

  Several New Micro-Mobility Vehicles                                                                                      Source:  Honda Unique New Technologies  Honda is developing a series of test vehicles that will be able to communicate and cooperate like humans.  They are micro-mobility vehicles that include a 4-seat electric mini-car. The car self-drives and can have conversations with the user. There is also a very mobile robot that can help carry people's bags.  These vehicles are the highly innovative creations of Honda CI (Cooperative Intelligence) and Honda AI.  Honda says that the goal and purpose of these new travel concepts is to help people who don't own a car, to move around cities.  T...

  World's First Autonomous Snowblower                        Let the Robot Do the Shoveling A new, intelligent robot, developed by China's Hanyang Technology Company's robotics group Hanyang Robotics, could make snow shoveling obsolete.  Snowbot is an intelligent, autonomous, robotic snowblower that can clear 1500 square feet of snow on a single charge.  Snowbot can scoop up and blow away up to a foot of snow.  It is totally autonomous and powered by electric motors.  It can be controlled with an app on your phone or by remote control.  And, unlike current snowblowers powered by diesel, Snowbot is totally emissions free.  The company says it is the world's first autonomous snowblower.  It can clean 1.3 feet of snow per second. Very Advanced Technology Snowbot actually creates a map of the area to be cleared of snow.  It uses 4, ultra-wide band positioning terminals.  T...

  Robots That Are More Intelligent, Capable & Likeable                                            Source:  Amazon Amazon's Astro Over the next few years, we should expect a whole new, next-generation of more intelligent, congenial and capable robots for help in our houses and lives.  These new robotic assistants for humans are being developed in research labs, startups and at some of the biggest technology companies in the world including Samsung and Amazon. A great example of the Next-G of robots is Amazon's Astro. Astro For Your Home Astro was just introduced to the global market.  The $1,000 plus robot can move small objects on command from room to room to a designated recipient on the same floor, while simultaneously using its cameras to monitor as it moves around the house for any intruders. Multitasking robots are the future of domest...

Taking Reservations, Giving Information Source:  Misty Robotics Your Robotic Hotel Experience Misty 11 has great aspirations to be a key part of the hospitality industry.  The cute, little rolling robot is the invention of Misty Robotics, based in Boulder, Colorado and was just unveiled at CES 2020.  Misty can detect humans, greet them, interact, provide information and responses.  She can make reservations, call for assistance and even be part of point of sales systems.  The little robot gives new meaning to the hospitality industry.  Her inventors have designed her to go to work in a hotel near you very soon. Open Source Code What's ingenious about Misty is she is not limited to one task.  This is part of an important, new emerging trend to design robots that are not limited to one use.  They have capabilities that can be used in many ways.  In the case of Misty, from room mapping to greeting customers and taking r...

Robotic Hand with Rhythm Source:  University of Cambridge Piano:  Very Challenging & Complex Test for Robotic Passive Movement Systems Engineers at the University of Cambridge in the UK have developed a robotic hand that can play the piano by just moving its wrist.  This is a passive movement robotic system.  The fingers don't move independently.  Because of the complexity of playing the piano, the roboticists believe it was the ideal test for their new innovation system. PianoHand The hand is 3D printed.  It replicates all the bones and joints in a human hand.  It doesn't include replications of the tendons and muscles.  Because the fingers don't move independently of the wrist (passive movement), the robot is able to achieve different styles of piano playing without changing the material or mechanical properties of the hand.  That's important new robotics. More Natural Moving Robots Experts believe this passive movement co...

YuMi, the Robot Conductor, to Do Duty on Factory Floor Source:  ABB's YuMi conducting Lucca Philharmonic Orchestra in Italy ABB's New Shanghai  Robot Factory At the new ABB robot factory in China, the Swiss engineering group will use robots to make robots.  It's a $150 million, state of the art facility in Shanghai that the company just announced today.  ABB is building the factory to strategically secure and defend its place as China's largest maker of industrial robots.  YuMi, the highly acclaimed robot conductor, will be part of the workforce.  YuMi humanoid robots are designed to work side by side with people. China 2020 The new factory will open in 2020.  It's close to ABB's China robotics campus.  It will build robots for China and for export elsewhere in Asia.  China is ABB's #2 market after the US. Shanghai Global Technology Center In a statement announcing the project, ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer said:  "Shanghai ha...

Search & Rescue RSTAR that Climbs Walls It's called RSTAR and is the creation of Ben-Gurion University Professor David Zarrouk, formerly of UCal Berkeley's Biomimetic Millisystems Lab.  STAR means the Sprawl-Tuned Autonomous Robot. This one is on the rise...literally, it climbs walls.  It's an incredibly dexterous bot that just debuted at an international robotics conference in Brisbane. Sprawling Robots -Turtle Inspired RSTAR takes the sprawling wheel-leg mobility of its predecessor robots and adds a new degree of freedom.  And that's what's so significant.  The body of the robot can move separately from the legs.  This changes its center of mass and enables it to climb over obstacles.  Its inspiration comes from nature as do so many other robots.  In this case, it's the gait of turtles. STAR Series Professor Zarrouk has designed a series of sprawling, crawling, climbing robots.  They can handle all kinds of terrain....