Scott, I think you bring up a good point. Although much of this biomimicry robot research is funded by the military for military applications, it's also true that the engineers are obviously learning a lot about how biological systems work. I've discovered that there's a lot of engineering research labs at American universities focused on biomimicry, and many (most?) of them receive US military funding.
Thanks, Chuck, glad you liked it. This was a lot of fun to put together. Most of the military apps for these appear to be reconnaissance/surveillance, somewhat like the smaller versions of my Military Robots slideshow, with civilian apps falling into the first responders category of going where people can't (small, dangerous spaces). Although I didn't see specific civilian apps mentioned for Robojelly on the Virginia Tech researchers' BMDL site, I suspect they might be something parallel to military surveillance, such as remote monitoring/data gathering for marine biological labs, like the one at Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Science fiction is moving along. It's just that now concepts and ideas become imaginary and hard to understand (long gone are the days of submarines and spaceships as fiction). Several sci fi writers have tried to explain transcendence to another state completely. Talk about shedding our physical form and becoming an energy form. As fiction goes it's so far removed from reality not many care for it any more. Also it's harder to dazzle readers or viewers with amazing ideas with difficult to pronounce names ever since Google was invented. It is common now for writers to use catch phrases for certain tech without informing the reader about it. Nano-tech and Pico-tech is becoming a very lame standard for something amazingly powerful and small. I have personally experienced a decline in my appreciation of science fiction.
Odex 1 was a 6 legged robot developed by Odetics years ago. It was hindered by the then-limited processing power and then-high power consumption of the technology.
Also, Festo has an 'air jelly' that is interesting, at least to me.
In some ways, designing one of these robots with a particular application in mind could put artificial limits on the innovation. It's almost like letting the student or professional engineering teams go rampant with their imagination will make for the coolest, and potentially widest-range robots--particularly those that can be applied to practical applications likely never envisioned by their creators.
Jmiller, that's what makes the field of Biomimetics so fascinating. The journey of science and engineering mixed with biology inspiration and creativity makes this technology roller coast ride a thrill to be on. I'm so inspired by these slides that I will be directing the Capstone Class at ITT
Technical Institute to view them for a possible design project.
It is hard to imagine some of the applications, especially the jellyfish. I don't remember reading if any of the robots have audio capabilities. Do any of the robots have both audio and visual capabilities?
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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