The castaways that are currently available for rescue are undoubtedly being paid far to much to consider accepting a rescue. Although if it were rehearsed as much as the rest of those shows it might possibly be quite interesting.
I agree--I think this design, as well as robotic fish, could compete well against more clunky-moving unmanned underwater vehicles UUVs) and do a good job of reconnaissance, chemical monitoring, and other such tasks that UUVs are designed for.
I can see a large number of applications for the sea turtle robot, even more if it can be dressed to give the same sonar signature as a real turtle. A group of them could attach mines to an entire fleet of enemy vessels without raising any alarm. And that is just the most obvious task.
They could also be very useful in the commercial fishing business, and in a lot of underwater investigations, since they are undoubtedly quite stable.
Thanks, mrdon. Baxter is definitely an interesting development in social robotics. We've covered robots that interact with people in several types of environments: http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=251275 http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=251721 and more at the links at the end of the second article listed.
Hi Ann, Your quite welcome. I had a similar conversation with my Control Systems class last night on not only the autonomous attributes but social interaction of robotics. Showed a couple of You Tube videos on Rodney Brook's ReThink Robotics Baxter and his early work on Cog at MIT's Artifical Lab.
mrdon, thanks for that explanation. Robots are becoming more autonomous all the time, as sensors, processor and software become more powerful and/or increasingly sophisticated.
Thank God the Swiss are funding stupid things like this..... Oh crap; I finally read the rest of the first paragraph. Somewhere I knew that the U.S. Govt might do something like automate a fish. Who better than F-ing Homeland Security to manufacture a spy fish. Wait until the Navy finds out that another dept is infringing on their territory. This flapping contraption reminds me of the first attempts to make a flying machine that flapped.
On the other hand may be I could get a grant from Homeland Sec. to develop a flapping airplane.
The Chief of Naval Operations once stated in a speach that the U.S. Navy has three enemies: The Soviet Union, the U.S. Air Force and Hyman Rickover. Now we'd have to add Homeland Sec.
Thanks, Lou and gsmith. There's a surprising number of swimming robots, whether humanoid or animal-oid. Lou, good point about fishing! gsmith, I also noticed some major improvements in the rev 1 and 2 of the naro.
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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