Robots We Know and Love
This year has been great for robot news. It seemed like we had a non-stop flow of stories about robots inspired by nature, robots that can explore nature, robots that can clean up after our disasters, robots that can track disasters we're creating and so much more. Here are our favourite stories from the year. We'll start out with some record-breaking robots, then move on to some crazy designs inspired by the natural world that were created this year and robots that can help us save energy, explore the depths of the ocean, keep our houseplants alive, and in general, make the world more interesting.
1. Wave-Powered Robot Completes 9,000 Mile Ocean Trek
Last November, Liquid Robotics let loose four Wave Gliders in the Pacific ocean. It's a slow, slow journey traveling at about 1.5 knots, but one Wave Glider, named "Papa Mau", has completed the 9,000 nautical mile trip across the Pacific, leaving a world record for longest autonomous trip in its wake.
2. Robotic Cheetah Beats Usain Bolt's Speed Record
This galloping robot started out by reaching speeds of 18mph, smashing a previous record of 13.1mph for legged robots, set back in 1989. Months later, researchers pulled even more speed out of it. The "cheetah" was able to run a 20-meter split on the treadmill at 28.3 mph. That's 0.52 mph faster than Usain Bolt's world record of 27.78 mph over a 20-meter split, set in 2009!
3. Underwater Robot Maps Antarctic Ice in 3D
Robots are one of the only ways we can get a real sense of what's going on under sea ice, an area of study important for climate change. Megan writes, "Australian researchers are using an AUV to map the underside of Antarctic ice while helicopters are doing 3D mapping from above. This project will allow researchers to go beyond the satellite measurements of ice cover and give a more detailed picture of the ice and how it is changing."
4. Robots to Repair Coral Reefs
Credit: NOAA's National Ocean Service
Mapping the ocean isn't the only thing robots can do - they can also help repair marine ecosystems. Megan reports, "Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland are developing underwater micro-robots that could be sent in swarms to save coral reefs. The so-called coralbots would be programmed to piece together coral that have been damaged by bottom-trawling fishing or hurricanes, allowing them to regrow."
5. Oh, and Robots That Mimics Fish
There's underwater robots and there's underwater robots that are practically out of a Sci-Fi novel. We're talking about robots that look like, act like, and even interact with, fish.
You'll want to read about these three favourites from the year:
6. And Jellyfish Too
Credit: Institute of Physics
Oh and let's not forget the robot that swims like a jellyfish and can even make its own hydrogen fuel.
7. All-Around Inspired by Nature
Credit: Harvard Microrobotics Lab
You know, let's not stop with fish-like robots. There are lots of animals that inspire robot shapes, movement, and uses. For instance, dragonflies, butterflies, birds, and so on. In fact, let's just list a recent round-up that covers 9 Drones Inspired by Nature. They're pretty rad, and worth a few minutes to click through and see some of those crazy bots.
8. Squishy-bots
And then there are the robots that don't look much like anything from the natural world, and have some rather unnatural capabilities. Take, for instance: Improved "Soft Robots" Are Air Powered and Can Lift 120 Times Their Own Weight. This one really had our jaws dropping earlier this year.
9. Putting Robots to Work
Now let's move on to the usefulness of all these different robots. Yes, we can use them for research and exploration. But we can also use them to do our bidding. One of the more lofty uses are robots that can install solar panels, and robots that can clean solar panels - both of which can save us loads of money. We liked these news bites this year!
10. Heavy-Duty Robot Ready to Clean Up Fukushima
There's also the more-random-but-no-less-important job duties like cleaning up after nuclear disasters. This guy was designed by Hitachi specifically for the task of cleaning up the failed nuclear power plant.
11. Robotic Plant Drone Moves Houseplants to Sunny Spots
Credit: Stephen Verstraete
And then there are the less-important-but-still-nice-to-have-a-robot-do-that tasks like making sure your houseplants get enough sun. We loved seeing this drone earlier in the year, with the ability to seek out the sunny spots in your house.
12. Robots FTW
Credit: OpenROV
There was a lot of great robot news this year but one of the stories that hit home for us was this one: Open Source Robot Lets Anyone Explore the Oceans. This project manages to bring together three things we love and appreciate: open-sourced information, the DIY mentality, and learning about our amazing planet (especially the oceans!).
It's a great story to sum up the year in robot news and why we avidly follow stories about amazing technology!
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