DailyDirt: Robots Doing The Heavy Lifting

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Robots are cool in so many ways. People usually think of them as huge machines that are clumsy and awkward. However, robots come in all sizes nowadays -- and they're getting smaller while still being able to do some tough jobs. Bots aren't just vacuuming our floors. They'll soon do a lot more tasks autonomously and replace a lot of physical labor. Here are just a few examples of robots pulling (sometimes more than) their weight.

• There's a European robot project, Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Recovery Tool (AVERT), designing robots that can maneuver under a parked car, lift it up and move it someplace else by remote control. These robots only lift a car about an inch off the ground, and they're supposed to help police and/or security teams to move suspicious cars to safer locations. But it might be nice to have autonomous bots re-park cars.... [url]
• The Muscle Suit is a wearable suit -- powered by compressed air that can help people lift heavy objects with minimal effort. It only weighs 12 pounds itself, takes less than a minute to put on, and is controlled.. by a mouthpiece. These kinds of supersuits come in several varieties, but this one is designed to be harmless to the wearer. [url]
• Tiny robots that weigh several grams can pull over a hundred times their own weight. The trick for these bots is a gecko-inspired sticky material combined with an inchworn-like movement. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: autonomous bots, autonomous vehicle emergency recovery tool, avert, bio-inspired locomotion, biomimicry, muscle suit, robots, wearables