Warren, I'm with you on the creepiness factor of the Crawlers and, even more so, Spidernaut. But I found the analysis of Spidernaut's gait extremely interesting--more legs means more (potential) stability) on rough ground, assuming they are coordinated correctly.
Sadly, they would have been the most popular agency, group, band of heroes on earth if they had kept going to the moon. As a young adult I followed every launch and update. No wonder the American people got so disallusioned with NASA. The Space Shuttle was not very exciting. I don't care about the logistics of manned space flight. The American people love the excitement of space- Star Trek, Star Wars, ET, etc. shows where the money is. And it ain't in space lab, no matter the value!
As I recall, NASA's moon program was cut short by the government. There were supposed to be two more Apollo flights than actually happened. The program was axed by Congress on the grounds that we had proved our point and the money was better spent elsewhere.
Too bad. The next logical step would have been a permanent outpost on the Moon. The shuttles near earth capability was originally supposed to be a stepping stone in that direction.
Besides being a "great title for a "B" movie, why can't they build cars and airplanes out of the same stuff they built Voyager? That little puppy has been gone for 35 years and counting!
Great slide show, although some of them might give me nightmares, like the crawler spidery thingie.
I have always been impressed with how NASA not only keeps up but sets the bar for new things technology. Too bad they weren't smart enough to go back to the moon and keep the public's interest up, so they could get sufficient funding. And that is from a guy who thinks the government overreaches its authority doing such things.
I used to work on Robonaut, so, yes, Bobafet is the inspiration for the original head, although you'll never get them to admit it because they don't want Lucas breathing down their neck.
I agree, Naperlou. The NASA robot does look like the bounty hunter from Star Wars. When I look at the headline of this article and look at the GM Robonaut photo, I am also reminded of the line, "Danger, Will Robinson."
Thanks, Rob. As it turns out, there aren't that many humanoid robots destined for space: The DLR's Justin and NASA's Robonaut are the only two I came across.
Lou, did you mean NASA's Robonaut? It does look a lot like the Star Wars bounty hunter. I wonder if that's where the NASA engineers got their inspiration. The Curiosity rover is shown in slide 5.
Image 7, of the German DLR crawlers, is just plain scary.
By rights, the ESA ATV cargo craft that has flown to the space station 3 times, and the Russian Progress cargo craft that has gone to ISS dozens of times belong in this list. Both of those vehicle types dock automatically (albeit with a manual control backup mode).
The Japanese ATV and SpaceX vehicles are not as capable; they rendezvous automatically but must be docked using a different robot (CanadArm2).
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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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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