Smarter control in robotics & automation!

ROS.org | Powering the world's robots OpenRTM-aist official website | OpenRTM-aist SmartSoft researchers develop a new type of soft, growing robot Imagine rescuers searching for people in the rubble of a collapsed building. Instead of digging through the debris by hand or having dogs sniff for signs of life, they bring out a small, air-tight cylinder. They place the device at the entrance of the debris and flip a switch. From one end of the cylinder, a tendril extends into the mass of stones and dirt, like a fast-climbing vine. A camera at the tip of the tendril gives rescuers a view of the otherwise unreachable places beneath the rubble. Go to the web site to view the video. Kurt Hickman and Aaron Kehoe Robot prototype is soft and flexible and could serve a wide range of purposes. This is just one possible application of a new type of robot created by mechanical engineers at Stanford University, detailed in a June 19 Science Robotics paper. To investigate what their robot can do, the group created prototypes that move through various obstacles, travel toward a designated goal, and grow into a free-standing structure. A growing robot