Detailed Descriptions The NASA Space Telerobotics Program

Previous Cool From 2001

  Dec 31    PHI - pneumatic haptic interface system, utilizing pneumatics for force-reflection between the human arm and a computer-generated world.
  Dec 24    Gingerbread Robot - just for the holidays, here are instructions for making your own edible robot.
  Dec 17    Beagle 2 - Mars lander slated for launch in May 2003, that includes a robotic "PAW" for analyzing surface samples to search for signs of ancient life.
  Dec 10    Ice Crawler - twin sisters from Alaska win $50,000 from the Siemans Westinghouse Science and Technology Awards for an ice-crawling robot.
  Dec 03    Entomopter - update of the micromechanical flying insect project for Mars exploration being conducted at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in partnership with OAI (also, see the story on SpaceRef.com).
  Nov 26    Perception Actions - vision based uncalibrated robot control, including a good overview of visual servoing, from the University of Rochester
  Nov 19    3D Terrain Mapping - terrain map construction using range sensors, under development by Martial Hebert and Dan Huber, in the 3D Computer Vision Group at CMU.
  Nov 12    Space Robot Joint Actuator - lightweight actuator being developed by the European Space Agency for use as an element of a possible future space maniuplator
  Nov 05    Evolving Robotic Behaviours - overview of ongoing research at the Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intellignece
  Oct 29    CoABS - Control of Agent Based Systems, a DARPA project to develop a prototype "agent grid" as an infrastructure for the run-time integration of heterogeneous multi-agent and legacy systems.
  Oct 22    DARPA Microrobot - being developed at the Michigan State University College of Engineering, this series of small prototype robots are intended to demonstrate several types of locomotion (including wall-climbing and crawling).
  Oct 15    CRASR - Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, with information about the role of robot systems in the search of the WTC tragedy sites.
  Oct 08    Long Range Science Rover - also known as Rocky 7, this rover is being used by JPL to expand the science enabling capabilities of planetary exploration rovers, while increasing their range of operation.
  Oct 01    Bane Of O'Donoghue - a "semi-automatic, auto targeting, KoolFruit sorting, pneumatic turret" ready to be mounted on any available robot base. The design documentation is a great read! From the HET343 Mechatronics class at the Swinburne University of Technology.
  Sep 24    M2 - 3D bipedal walking robot which is currently being developed in the MIT Leg Laboratory. The 12-DOF robot will be used to investigate walking algorithms, motion description and control techniques, force control actuation techniques, and automatic learning techniques.
  Sep 17    Robota Dolls - prototypes of highly interactive doll-type robots, capable of simple interaction with humans.
  Sep 10    PID Control Algorithm - a great introduction to PID controllers (for Proportional, Integral, and Derivative control) from the Seattle Robotics Society.
  Sep 03    Ordnance Recognition - JPL development of an ordnance recognition method for use on an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) as part of the Rough Terrain Surface Munitions Clearance project
  Aug 27    Skyworker - CMU project to develop a space assembly, inspection and maintenance robot to transport and manipulate payloads of kilograms around in-space construction site.
  Aug 20    Modular Reconfigurable Robotics - Xerox PARC project to develop technologies for allow the construction of different mechanical robots out of multiples of one simple module.
  Aug 13    VMS - the Voluntary Milking System - a real cow-milking robot! This is just too cool!
  Jul 30    McKibben Artificial Muscles - great description of pneumatic actuators used as artificial muscles, from the University of Washington BioRobotics Lab as part of their Anthroform Arm Project.
  Jul 23    PHI - Pneumatic Haptic Interface system, from SMU School of Engineering.
  Jul 16    Snake Robot Design - Design notes for serpentine manipulators, including a unique compact joint design, by Howie Choset.
  Jul 09    AUVSI 4 - 4th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition, held this week by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems at the U.S. Naval Academy.
  Jul 02    Hyperion - a sun-synchronous robotic explorer being deployed and tested in Haughton Crater on Devon Island all this month, by the CMU Field Robotics Center. Update: Hyperion completed it's first sun synchronous mission on July 19.
  Jun 25    Organic Robot - a great introduction to robotics to use when teaching neophytes, by Ken Boone of the Triangle Amateur Robotics group.
  Jun 18    ADAM - research platform for dual-arm flexible manipulators, conducted by the Space Robotics and Mechatronics section of the Space Machines Laboratory at Tohoku University.
  Jun 11    WE-3RIV - an anthropomorphic head robot, part of the Humanoid Project from Waseda University.
  Jun 04    Robotics Competition FAQ - one of the best (and most current) lists of robotics competitions that we have seen, maintained by Steven Rainwater on robots.net.
  May 28    Tarry Robots - small walking machines developed and build by the Department of Engineering Mechanics at the University of Duisburg.
  May 21    Cool Robot Of The Week! - After years of trying to get noticed, we have achieved a modicum of fame! The Cool Robot Of The Week site has been selected as one of the 50 best sites on the web by Scientific American, in the "engineering" category!.
  May 14    RHex - compliant hexapod robot developed by a collaboration from McGill University, U. Michigan and University of California at Berkeley.
  May 07    BARt-UH Bipedal Autonomous Robot from the Universitat Hannover, with some cool video clips.
  Apr 30    FIDO is conducting a series of field tests over the next two weeks, as practise sessions for the Mars Exploration Rover-2003 mission to Mars. The FIDO science server includes links to test results and image data products.
  Apr 23    Canadarm2 - the first part of theMobile Servicing System for the International Space Station was installed this weekend by the STS-100 crew.
  Apr 16    Mobot Races - the seventh annual Mobot Races, being held this weekend at Carnegie Mellon University.
  Apr 09    Beatty Machine and Manufacturing & School City of Hammond & Northeastern University/ Textron Systems & Boston Latin School & Brookline HS & Milton Academy & Dana Corporation & Toledo Technology Academy & Rogers HS & TRW & Mira Costa & Redondo Union HS & E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Inc./ DuPont Engineering Explorer Post - winners of the National Championships, at the 2001 FIRST Robotics Competition held last weekend in Orlando.
  Apr 02    Robotic Sheepdog - an autonomous robot that can gather and herd a flock of ducks!
  Mar 26    IMS - the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems project, a multi-national effort to develop the next generation of manufacturing and processing technologies. Includes a list of supported projects (including those seeking new partnerships).
  Mar 19    Rover Navigation Using GPS - using GPS systems for precise, autonomous rover navigation - research from the Stanford Aerospace Robotics Laboratory.
  Mar 12    Spherical Motor - Developed at Johns Hopkins University Robotics Lab, this is a globe-shaped motor capable of rotating in any direction.
  Mar 05    Rover Ranch - experiments with robotic software, and K-12 teacher resource.
  Feb 26    Inflatable rovers - developing large-wheeled, light-weight, remote-controlled vehicle for transport of instrument payloads on distant planets and moons.
  Feb 19    Aerobots - robotic atmospheric vehicles for planetary exploration.
  Feb 12    Mini-bot - Sandia National Lab project to build a robot that can "turn on a dime and park on a nickel" (see some early related work from the MIT "Ants" project here).
  Feb 05    Urbie - DARPA project to design and build an urban Tactical Mobile Robot.
  Jan 29    BIP 2000 - European anthropomorphic biped robot project (with a good photo here).
  Jan 22    Electronic Cookbook Archive - University of Alberta repository of useful circuit designs - browse a while, you never know what you may find!.
  Jan 15    Talking Heads - an overview of international efforts to create talking heads (physiological / computational / cognitive models of audio-visual speech).
  Jan 08    Mars - U. Penn. project to develop software for controlling multiple autonomous robots.
  Jan 01    DESIRE - A project by the University College Dublin to develop socially empowering robotic agents.
Note: indicates the organization is developing technologies for space applications of robotics

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Maintained by: Dave Lavery
Last updated: May 14, 2001