The Elenco Escape Robot

The Elenco Escape Robot provides a hands-on experience in building your own A.I. Robot. With the use of 3 IR emitting diodes and 1R receiving module that allows the Escape Robot to send and receive signals to detect obstacles. 

A built-in microprocessor permits the Escape Robot to think on its own by gathering information on its environment. Resulting in an amazing escape from any maze!

For more information: midwesternrobotics.com

Did you know...

In 1495 Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored humanoid machine? 

In 1945, at the court of Milan Leonardo displayed the armored humanoid machine at a celebration. The machine was operated by an intricate design of pulleys and cables. The machine was able to stand, sit and maneuver its arms. 

In 1950 the plans for the machine was rediscovered in a series of sketchbooks. The machine has been renamed as Leonardo’s mechanical knight and has been successfully built. Confirming that the designs create a fully functional machine just as Leonardo had planned. 

Below is a model of Leonardo's mechanical knight, with the inner pulleys and cables, as displayed in Berlin. 

"Meant to Shock the World.”

Today a paraplegic, dressed in a metal vest and a blue cap affixed with electrodes, got out of his wheelchair to take the first kick at the World Cup. A gesture "meant to shock the world,” said by Dr. Nicolelis. A demonstration of this caliber is outside of the standard for robotic demonstration. 

The robotic exoskeleton is the brain child of Dr. Nicolelis, a leading scientist in the file of brain-machine interfaces, and was created with a team of over 150 researchers.

The exoskeleton received direct instructions from the individual who is wearing the suit. Paper-thin electrodes within the blue cap worn but the paraplegic records and transmits neuronal information to and from a small computer on the back of the exoskeleton. From there the information is sent to the legs. 

Visit CNN for more in depth information. 

History in the making!

For the first time a robot housed in space fixed its self without any aid from astronauts. Canadarm2 robotic arm, the two faulty cameras on the Canadian built robot was replaced by a series of mini operations performed by the use of its own mechanical hand called Dextre. 

The Canadarm2 had two problems that needed to be fixed. The first, a camera was removed in 2012 by astronauts. The second, a camera connected at the elbow joint was starting to act up. Being that this camera is crucial in the work done by Canadarm2 and the first camera has been out of commission since 2012, the Canadian Space Agency team decided upon using the robotic arm to fix both problems. 

The procedure began with detaching the camera acting up at the elbow joint and reattaching it where the camera was removed in 2012. Then Dextre took a new camera from the Kibo airlock and connected it to its own elbow in place of the old one that was acting up. The cumbersome cameras, around 47 pounds, are about the size of an outdated CRT-style monitor. 

The complicated process includes defined dexterity from Dextre in order to unscrew bolts and bring them back to the Kibo airlock without dropping any. A job of this magnitude was difficult since Dextre had not been set up to repeat tasks. 

Dextre might be the first to repair itself but surely it is not the last. 

For more information visit http://2045.com/news/32894.html