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Category: robotics/AI – Page 1,811

MIT is building a ‘one-stop shop’ for 3D-printing robots

Additive manufacturing has proven an ideal solution for certain tasks, but the technology still lacks more traditional methods in a number of categories. One of the biggest is the requirement for post-printing assembly. 3D printers can create extremely complex components, but an outside party (be it human or machine) is required to put them together.

MIT’s CSAIL department this week showcased “LaserFactory,” a new project that attempts to develop robotics, drones and other machines than can be fabricated as part of a “one-stop shop.” The system is comprised of a software kit and hardware platform designed to create structures and assemble circuitry and sensors for the machine.

A more fully realized version of the project will be showcased at an event in May, but the team is pulling back the curtain a bit to show what the concept looks like in practice. Here’s a breakdown from CSAIL’s page:

Dr. Julie Marble — JHU Applied Physics Lab — Human-Autonomy Interaction, Collaboration and Trust

Human-Autonomy Interaction, Collaboration and Trust — Dr. Julie Marble, JHU Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

Dr. Julie Marble is a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) leading research in human-autonomy interaction, collaboration and trust.

Dr. Marble earned her PhD in Human Factors/Cognitive Psychology from Purdue University. After graduating from Purdue University, she joined the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy involved in nuclear research, first in the Human Factors group and then the Human and Robotic Systems group.

Following INL, she joined Sentient Corporation, where as CEO she led a DARPA Broad Agency Announcement BAA on Neuro-Technology for Intelligence Analysts and led research on to develop an intelligent decision aid to perform just-in-time maintenance on Navy helicopters.

Dr. Marble then worked as a Senior Scientist at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission leading international and US studies on Human-Reliability Analysis methods in this vital domain and related to this, she is internationally recognized for her work, and is co-author of the SPAR-H method (Standardized Plant Analysis Risk Human Reliability Analysis), the most commonly used method of human reliability analysis in the US. She is also co-developer of the Cultural Affective Model, which integrates cultural impacts into human reliability in order to predict operator behavior.

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DARPA Opens Door to Producing “Unimaginable” Designs for DoD

DARPA’s TRAnsformative DESign (TRADES) program, which began in 2017, set out to develop foundational design tools needed to explore the vast space opened by new materials and additive manufacturing processes commonly called 3D printing. The program recently concluded having successfully developed new mathematics and computational techniques, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, that will allow future designers to create previously unimaginable shapes and structures of interest to defense and commercial manufacturing.

DARPA Selects Performers to Advance Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Project

DARPA has executed contract options to continue the Manta Ray project that began in 2020. The effort seeks to demonstrate innovative technologies allowing payload-capable unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to operate on long-duration, long-range missions in ocean environments. The three prime contractors will be Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, Martin Defense Group, LLC (formerly Navatek, LLC), and Metron, Inc.

GKN Aerospace proposes eVTOL Skybus transports for 30 to 50 passengers

While a multitude of companies are jostling to compete in the emerging electric VTOL air taxi market, it’s very rare to find aircraft designs carrying more than five people. But British multinational giant GKN Aerospace is looking into something much bigger: “park ‘n’ ride” Skybus transports capable of carrying 30 to 50 passengers across congested parts of town, moving affordable public transport into the third dimension.

This initiative is part of the UK’s Future Flight Challenge, which is using some £125 million (US$171 million) of government cash and a further £175 million (US$239 million) from the industrial sector to fund a wide range of projects related to electric aviation, including drone swarm and delivery technologies, air traffic control that can handle a huge influx of autonomous drones and aircraft, eVTOL air taxis, sensor technologies, industrial inspection UAVs and other projects like the pop-up eVTOL airport in Coventry we wrote about yesterday.

Where most passenger-carrying eVTOL projects are envisaged as on-demand Uber-style services connecting individual passengers or small groups with ride-share services at either end, the Skybus project takes a public transport approach, with large birds ferrying significant numbers of people over city routes on fixed schedules.

Fetch’s latest warehouse robot is designed to replace forklifts

San Jose-based robotics company Fetch unveiled its latest robot this morning. The PalletTransport1500 is an autonomous bot designed specifically to replace forklift uses in warehouses. The systems, which are designed to pick up and delivery pallets, are capable of sporting payloads of up to 2504 pounds.

The device joins a number of different robotic forklift solutions from various companies, including Toyota. Though Amazon’s own Kiva Systems-produced robots are likely still the best-known pallet moving robotics in the game.

The system was developed with Honeywell’s Intelligrated’s Momentum warehouse software. Fetch, of course, already offers a number of different warehouse robotic solutions, building out a kind of autonomous ecosystem. The company’s systems are notable for their relative flexibility over other full-scale solutions.