Luna Personal Robot

Luna Personal Robot 

Today’s life is full of automation. Everybody wants to simplify their work by automation by devices and gadgets. As we all know that robots are the devices which are famous as the automation devices. While there are other devices like flying cars and jetpacks which are often used as automation devices but robots are generally used for done a work automatically. We still don’t have these automation devices around us and as they are quite expensive, but maybe we soon could. A few months before, a video was leaked of a mysterious robot. The mysterious robot is teased for about months now, originally rumored to be some gadget produced by either Google or Apple, in fact a project by a company named as RoboDynamics.

Few days ago, California’s RoboDynamics introduces it personal robot to the world, named as Luna. While there is a less information provided like its software, hardware etc. by the company. They described Luna as a Breakthrough in robot design. Luna is a personal robot designed for the people for their personal use. It is fully programmable robot and start shipping later this year. Luna was designed for Robodynamics by Schultze Works. It is an industrial design studio which is situated out of California.

Luna incorporates the hardware, firmware and driven train which is already used in Robodynamics’ Telepresence internet-connected Low cost Robot (TiLR). According to the company, The RoboDynamics, Luna is the world’s first personal robot to be expandable via expansion ports. It is fully programmable with open standards. It is an available at an affordable price in the market. It apparently have a carrying handle in its back side and an in articulated pipe-like arms that can swing up to carry a tray.



Luna contains a dual core atom 2 GHz processor and a Linux based operating system. It has up to 32GB of storage capacity. It has a positive interaction via an 8-inch capacitive touchscreen with three-microphone array with attached speakers. It can be controlled by wireless and cellular communication. It is equipped with an 8 Megapixel camera and a 3D sensor. It runs on 12 volt battery for 4-8 hours per charge.

Technical Specifications:

• Computer Processor: Dual Core Atom 2 GHz.
• Graphics: NVidia 94000M.
• Storage capacity: 8 GB flash, expandable to 32 GB.
• Wireless: Wi-Fi (802.11g), optional Bluetooth via Luna Expansion Port (LXP).
• Cellular comm.: Optional 3G or 4G via Luna Expansion Port (LXP).
• Operating system: Luna OS (includes Poky Linux, ROS, and other packages) I/O.
• Display: 8″ touchscreen capacitive LCD.
• Camera: 8-megapixel primary camera with digital zoom.
• Microphone: 3 microphone array with DSP front-end with sound localization.
• Speakers: Yes (no specs available yet).
• Sensors: 10-bit wheel encoders, Prime Sense 3D Sensor.
• Expansion ports: Luna Expansion Ports (LXP) x 7 [Each LXP comprises standard USB Female Type A and 12 volt and 5 volt regulated power with mounting holes].
• Power Battery: 12 volt, 26 amp-hour – SLA.
• Battery life: Between 4-8 hours.
• Charge time: 4-8 hours for full charge.
• Dimensions: Size: Height: 5’2″ (157 cm) – Base: 22″ (56 cm).
• Weight: 65 lbs. (30 Kg)

Hector- The 6 Legged Robot

 

The drones or robots are commonly used these days. They are used for automation of many works. The technicians continued their research in the field of robotics for betterment of robotics technology. A Research group at Bielefeld University has succeeded in showing the main robot of its kind on the planet how to walk. The first steps of that robot have been recorded in the video shown below. The robot is named Hector and its design is modelled like a stick insect. As its design indicates that it is inspired by the insect, Hector has an idle elastic joints and an ultralight exoskeleton. The exoskeleton is made from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP).



It is hoped that the Hector, which stands for Hexapod Cognitive autonomously operating robot will not only beneficial for robotics but it also beneficial for biologists interested in animal movement. Most of the six-legged drones are made to walk with the help of a tripod or any other fixed leg gait, but Hector is equipped with a free gait.

The free gait is a flexible leg which can control to deal with rough surfaces. In free gait leg technology, each leg is able to making its own decision for movement for when and where to move. It is basically called “Active Posture adaption”, which means movement with the help of sensors attached. Hector is able to figure out how to proceed the next step with facing the basic obstacles, such as wooden platform, slippery ground etc.

To run this robot without any difficulty, all the sub systems are made to communicate with each other. It is important for sub systems to communicate because Hector might have too many legs in the air at same time and it becomes unstable and fall over. The legs of this robot can collide with obstacles and it may fall if the systems cannot communicate properly. A further stage in the development of the robot was the design and production of the robot body. This robot is designed in two colors, Green & white and Black.

Digital Worm To Provide Artificial Consciousness...

There tends to be a plan that making “true” computing is functionally distinct from making real and sensible Artificial Intelligence that may truly go toward dominant a robotic being that exists these days. The previous is concerning simulating consciousness, whereas the latter has got to do with easy activity switch like after you hit a wall, stop going forward.



 Yet, his categorisation assumes that “true” consciousness isn’t simply a detailed network of such easy programmatic directions — if consciousness is simply an extremely well programmed machine, then evolution of Artificial Intelligence is a big leap toward true artificial consciousness. A brand new project from the folks at OpenWorm demonstrates this theory quite appropriately, as they’ve induced their worm brain simulation into a simulated worm body, and got immediate result as a worm-like behavior.



Observe that the worm mechanism isn’t significantly worm-like in first glance. Instead of being a wriggling snake like machine, which might pose a great challenge in operating, the OpenWorm team used aadditional standard mechanism on wheels. Thus, behavior is simulated here and not locomotion. OpenWorm has spent a major quantity of time in modeling the worm’s muscles and natural methodology of movement.



OpenWorm uses computer code to do to accurately model each neural association between the 300-odd neurons within the roundworm c. elegans; its aim is to model how data travels through the worm’s body and formulates behavior in its non-brain. The team’s design options a food and proximity device within the front section, that outputs the acceptable signals once stimulated; stimulating the nearby sensor shows the worm that it has encountered an obstacle, inflicting it to prevent moving any further.

Nanobots To The Rescue...!!!

What use is the technology if it cannot be applies to human aid! The biggest unsolved mystery regarding the health issue is cancer. Doctors and researchers have worked tirelessly day and night to find a cure for this deadly diseases. 

Every year a great portion of human population dies at the hands of cancer and all we can provide them is chemotherapy which works quite well at the early stages but becomes a lost cause when the time runs critical. So a new and much more spectacular way has been devised by the scientists to keep cancer cells at bay, using nanotechnology. While this may sound weird but scientists have developed nanobots that can bring this dream to reality.



The nanorobots are essentially assassins, sent out on a mission to attack cancer at its very source.  The bacteria guide the robot to the tumor and once there, it unloads its cargo of cancer-fighting drugs, contained in microscopic capsules, directly into the harmful tumor.



 Healthy cells are left intact. The bacteriobots have been tested in tumorous mice, which were injected with bacteriobots coated in near-infrared fluorescence and bioluminescence. Another group of mice were injected with bioluminescent bacteria that had not been attached to microbeads.



The control group was injected with inert microbeads without any bacteria attached. When they were extracted, the tumours from the control group showed no sign of bioluminescence or fluorescence; the bacteria-injected group showed bioluminescence, but no fluorescence. Only the bacteriobot group showed both, indicating that the nanobots were the most effective of the three at targeting cancer cells.



 With this incredible new breakthrough, it is confirmed that cancer is no longer going to be a big threat to human life as it is now. The cost of implementing this procedure is still not inconspicuous though.

Reasons to Be Terrified of Robots….

Real robot names like Roomba or Asimo don’t cause as much terror as the fictional “Terminator”, but you need to bear in mind that the cleaning robot Roomba  is actually made by iRobot – at the same place as the military robots for United States Armed Forces! And Asimo is only first prototypes of robots that look like real people.

 In Japan and Korea there is a plan of using humanoid robots to look after elderly people, while in the US, robots will be used on the battlefield. Of course, it’s too early to panic: it will take awhile for robots to take over humanity but they certainly can replace us in some other ways…

TIME WILL BE SOON WHEN ROBOTS WILL DO OUR WORK…

What you can do well now, robots will do better in the future. For now, we are still needed but robots are already used in space discoveries, places on Earth that are too dangerous for humans, labs and assembly lines, and take part in real human wars.

We can only hope that robots will not evolve to organize a rebellion.
For now robots complete humans not replacing them completely. Technology moves forward and some robots have already showed themselves in science.

RISE OF THE ROBOTS…

Scenario when robots rise up against their creators sounds least likely and can be imagined only in futuristic movies. But it doesn’t mean that situation like that will not happen in future. Thousands of drones and robots were used in battles against real people –  for example they were used in Iran and Afghanistan.  Automatic anti-aircraft gun kills by itself with no human control. This situation even happened during trainings. Military investigators seriously talk about the possibility of a Terminator scenario happening in real life and discuss how robots change the rules and ways of modern warfare.
 
As an example we can talk about Great Britain which created network of satellites to control drones and other military machines. As a matter of fact the system is named the same as the artificial intelligence in the films of the “Terminator” – Skynet…

NextAGE Is Truly the Next Generation Robot...

Robots are undoubtedly going to mark the next era. Many science fiction movies that we have seen portrays the future as an array of humans and robots alike. Robots for doing every single tasks, they are going to be our pets, our maids our caretakers. Day after day a new robot is being invented to simplify the human life not only in the areas of factories but also for households. Soon a mechanical humanoid roaming around in the house will become a common picture. To bring this picture to reality Kawada industries have launched its  humanoid robot Nextage.

Japan based KAWADA Industries has been developing humanoids to work alongside Homo sapiens in factories manufacturing cash dispensing machines and ticket dispensing machines. While the development of so many robots might terrify many people owing to the science fiction movies that have hit the market, but they have been accepted as important, even inspirational, members of the entire working team.  It takes the robot a whole three minutes to make a cup of instant coffee while elevator music plays softly in the background.

Its overall design includes a head with two cameras, a torso, two 6-axis arms and a mobile base. Its head is equipped with stereo vision just like a human. This means that Nextage can attain 3D coordinates with high precision. Moreover, the head has two degrees-of-freedom allowing it to adjust its field of vision with the workflow. Its torso has a LED display to assure visibility of the robot status. Its overall height can also be adjusted by changing the height of an element in the torso. Nextage has two cameras on its end effectors that can capture 3D information of an object by taking different pictures of it from different angles. The cameras bring precision to the robot’s work.



Its base has wheels, so it can be moved around and rapidly reassigned to another workstation. Its base contains all its control systems such as the image recognition system through an integrated PC. Its software uses GUI which helps to operate the robot intuitively with graphical elements. The source code for the software is licensed by GNU General Public License. This means the general public can download, distribute and duplicate it.

Under the circumstances, GLORY adopted the humanoid robots to build a new production line, which is capable of processing detailed precise works in manufacturing currency handling machines using a number of different parts. The new innovative assembly line, capable of stabilizing the product quality, has been built up by adopting the humanoid robots NEXTAGE, and will flexibly adapt to manufacturing a wide variety of products in variable quantities.



The close collaboration between GLORY, having the technical skills in mass production, and KAWADA INDUSTRIES, having the cutting-edge technology in the robot manufacturing industry, has demonstrated, each providing their respective strengths, a future path toward preserving domestic manufacturing bases in Japan. Kawada Industries is working towards building industrial robots that are not only used in manufacturing plans, but ones that will work alongside human laborers. The Japan Times reports that the Robot has cameras on each of its arms and can detect movement and doesn’t collide with people who enter its space.