Why Eel Drones Are the Future of Naval Warfare

Eel Drones – Underwater Reconnaissance

The U.S. Navy comprehends the importance of developing updated technology to keep up as well as ahead of other countries and according to recent reports it indicates that at least twelve countries have focused their resources and energy on autonomous underwater vehicles.

It is looking into Eel drones for underwater reconnaissance and/or attack which probably this tech had been around since the 50s though it is now making some progress in several countries which include the US while Russia had begun to explore the capabilities of undersea Eel drone in order to protect battleships and any underwater attack for divers.

The Eel design has been chosen since it has an ideal shape with the capacity to conserve the most energy as well as being undetectable. Aerial drones tend to be an important part of U.S. military strategy and looks more like an aircraft rather than an owl, butterflies or birds. Recently a robotic eel design prototype was debuted by a team of researchers from Singapore led by Jianxin Xu which could signal the future of undersea warfare.

Navy Drone – Slocum Glider 

Presently the most well-known Navy drone is the Slocum Glider from a company – Teledyne Benthos, which received over $200 million this year to develop further, the Glider for the Navy and Xu debates that the Glider, an inflexible torpedo drone leaves much to be desired as well as that nature has provided them with a better design.According to Xu who informed `Defense One’, he states that `Anguilliform’, an eel like fish utilises less energy on a long distance journey than a regular autonomous underwater vehicle. He comments that they are highly manoeuvrable as well as flexible, which makes them more appropriate than Gliders for navigating small spaces.

 Moreover the noiseless propulsion is an added advantage for the military and is less detectable than robot subs which propel themselves like conventional subs. Anguilliform locomotion is derived from the Latin word anguilla for eel which involves wide undulation in the body and is also common to sharks. Due to anguilliform movement, undulation takes the form of a wave which moves down the length of the body of the animal and pushes the water away, from side to side. Research for many years speculating in fluid dynamics, considered thunniform to be faster as well as efficient though recent research disagreed on this issue.

Eel Bots – Less Guidance/Operation 

Eel bots can explore and navigate reefs which tend to be difficult, hulls and undersea geological formations the way other fish are unable to do so. Xu states that the future prototype of his robot would need less guidance for operation and can self-navigate amidst difficult or dark crawl spaces resulting in less operators presiding over robots and make it more cost efficient for the Navy. Its most attractive feature is it adaptability and with the same undulating movement which propels it through the water, can also move forward on land too.

The Pentagon office of Naval Research had provided funds for project and research across the country for the sole purpose of developing UUVs for their military and these underwater drones would probably be used for underwater surveillance purpose like search and rescue operations, attacks on small boats and divers, checking for mines, mapping the sea floor as well as weather data collection. These drones could be powered by hydrogen which would help them in never running out of fuel.

Keecker- Interesting Machine That Can Move Around Your Room

Keecker is a type of mobile computer  Robot that consists of a projector along with an audio structure on a mobile base and also a group of potentially attractive sensors. However, its designers do not imagine it as a robot. CEO, Pierre Lebeau stated that robots are often portrayed as utilitarian and mechanized man’s tasks, and it is not parallel to Keecker. In fact, they really deemed Keecker as the development of computers and it is 100 percent made for a house or collective atmosphere.

Some hardware and software of the system-

It is a number of sensors and figures that is utilized to help this Keecker to be in motion, lock-in on people and keep away from obstacles. The manufacturers apply a combination of infrared with ultrasound signals, manifold camera imagery system and also Wi-Fi network method and many more.
The machine possesses some of the autonomous abilities.

Keecker shifts from one room to another room and can remember definite spots in your home. Therefore you can order it to go from one spot to another in only one click. You may even manage this Keecker yourself from your own Smartphone even though you are not at home. It is because it will run its camera to your handset and will allow you shift it in actual time.

Keecker can moreover be programmed to shift from room to room in the day or at night to test if all is normal. When the charge of battery is low, this device goes back to revive itself.

In accordance with Lebeau, while you first take Keecker into your home it starts moving around, by means of a 360-degree camera on its head to work out the ground space. When that mapping is finished, you may name every room, then you can point Keecker to move there with the valve of a switch. Lebeau was motivated by cleaning bots such as the Roomba, but he did not want Keecker to be exactly the same. Roomba can just hit into the wall and it is very stupid-like.

When you are out of the home it can be set to identify motion and check temperature, moisture, and CO2 amount. It can also change your babysitter, or even let you to simply keep a watch on her from the ease of your Smartphone. This device also contains a microphone, permitting it to act as a center for video calls or get voice commands. You can connect it with your phone via Bluetooth.

Length of the device-

Keecker is a supple, plastic orb that is about eleven inches broad and sixteen inches in length. It goes around the floor on a couple of wheels, which make it appear like a remote. You can manage it on your phone through an app for iOS system or Android.

Thus, when bring home this HomePod, Keecker and take it out from its container, it would start to look around, examining every part of the room. Later, you can instruct it to go to a specific position in your house, from your app.

United States Hospitals Will Use Robots to Kill Ebola

With the increasing number of cases of the Ebola virus all around the world, it has been able to create an extreme level of panic in every person. Ebola being one of the deadliest viruses can kill a person within a few days after the symptoms appear. If people being informed about various precautionary measures, there is no doubt that this virus can spread as quickly as a wildfire.

With the remote decontamination service market expected to have a good growth, many countries are leaving no stone unturned to handle the virus. Authorities in Madrid have already declared that they will euthanize the dogs of the people who contract Ebola outside Africa. Dogs seem to be showing the symptoms later on. WHO has already declared this situation to be completely unavoidable with increasing number of Ebola cases in Europe.

What is the robot all about? 

With the recent incident of emergency landing of the US Airlines Flight 2791, it has again given rise to the fact that Ebola can be highly infectious in airplanes. Hospitals around the world are taking measures to tackle this virus and they have gone to the extent to using a robot, called Ebola bot or little more. This robot was made by texas-based Xenex Disinfection services, which is basically a UV bulb being moved around on wheels. Although the machine costs around $115000 also, nearly 250 hospitals in America have already started using the device. This robot is being used to treat the first person who was diagnosed with the virus.

The robot emits UV lights which can kill the bacteria, destroys virus, bacteria and other infectious bugs, where ever the light practically falls on. This virus has the tendency to survive for 6 days on solid surfaced and spreads through faces, urine, vomit and blood. The aim of this robot is to eliminate any potential source for virus spreading.

This robot has the capability to clean an entire hospital within 5 minutes and also destroy the Ebola virus. It has the capacity to scatter 1.5 pulses every second in every direction to kill the virus.

Uses of this Robot: 

This robot will be mainly used to protect the healthcare workers in the hospitals, so that they are healthy to treat the ailing patients. According to Mark Stibich, Xenex’s chief science officer, they are ultimately aiming to ensure that the virus doesn’t spread outside the hospital. The company is in touch with government and other agencies to find out ways to tackle the situation in Africa.

What is the Advantage? 

Currently, most of the hospitals are spraying chlorine on these workers, but it can’t guarantee complete disinfection. UV rays will ensure that nothing is missed out. Although currently this robot requires manual operation, the company is hoping to make it automatic so that it can send to infected areas to handle the situation. Recent reports have claimed that the use of this robot has reduced the number of infection cases bay nearly 50 percent.

Soft Robotics 'Toolkit' Has All That a Robot-Maker Wants

The researchers from numerous Harvard University labs in partnership with Trinity College Dublin unveiled a new resource which will provide both the aspiring as well as experienced researchers with academic raw materials required for designing, building and operating the robots made from delicate and flexible materials.

Soft robotics is rising as an increasingly vital field due to the introduction of laser cutters, low-cost 3D printing and other advances in the manufacturing technologies. Based on the principles taken from the traditional rigid robot design engineers are now working with more flexible materials in the use of the soft robotics which can help in whole range of tasks like minimally invasive surgery, physical therapy and rescue operations in hazardous locations.

The Soft Robotics Toolkit can be considered as an online treasure trove, which can be utilized by the users for fabrication, characterization, modeling, design and to control the soft robotic devices through various open-source plans, case studies, how-to videos and downloadable etc. This toolkit will be providing the researchers details to a level which is still not available in any academic research papers and it includes the 3D models, raw experimental data, bills of materials, multimedia step-by-step tutorials and few case studies of different soft robot designs.

According to Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Conor Walsh; the main aim of this toolkit is to press forward the field of soft robotics and at the same time allowing the researchers and designers to build on each other’s work.

By creating a common source of sharing the knowledge, the developers of toolkit are hoping to stimulate the development of new ideas, creations and methods. According to Walsh, the soft robotics is well-matched to shared design tools as many of the necessary components like valves, regulators and microcontrollers are all easily exchangeable between systems. Dónal Holland, a graduate student at Trinity College Dublin as well as visiting lecturer in engineering sciences at SEAS is among the lead developers of the toolkit and is more interested in this toolkit for education purposes. The toolkit has been developed to capture all the expertise in the education field and make is available for the students.

With the open-source software spurring far-flung improvement in computing, open design has the capability to remote partnership on common mechanical engineering projects, setting free the crowdsourced innovation in robotics and other fields. According to assistant professor of mechanical and manufacturing engineering at Trinity College Dublin and a coauthor of a paper in Soft Robotics, Gareth J. Bennett, Open design can also have a disorderly impact on the technological development similar to that of open source.

Almost all the materials available in this toolkit have been taken from chemist George M. Whitesides, Woodford L., Robert J. Wood, Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and Ann A. Flowers University Professor. Apart from two other researchers helped establishing Harvard as a leader in soft robotics.

Soft robotic fish that swims like a real fish

MIT researchers have recently created a synthetic fish made from soft robotics technology. Based on bio mimicry, this flexible and autonomous robot is able to move almost as fast as any true aquatic vertebrate. The prototype was made of silicone printed in 3D, so that it can move with fluidity to withstand shocks and collisions with other fellow species of the ocean bed. It is fully autonomous, synthetic fish is provided with a shank comprising two sections.

In addition to making quick movements, it has great freedom in its movements. It also uses carbon dioxide to "breathe" underwater. Daniela Rus, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the MIT Computer artificial intelligence laboratory told that they are very proud of their flexible robot for a variety of reasons. With flexible robots, there is little danger of collision for the robot or the environment. But the new robotic fish was designed to explore another advantage of flexible robots. The body deforms continuously gives these machines an infinite range of configurations, and it is not possible with machines articulated according to Daniella.

Continuous curvature of the fish body flexes when it allows changing direction so quickly. Hence this robot rigid body can make continuous bending of its body. The robotic fish was built by Andrew Marchese, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from MIT. They explained that the evolved carbon dioxide from a canister in the abdomen of the fish results in the swelling of the duct and the bending of the tail.

Each half of the tail of the fish has only two control parameters that is the diameter of the nozzle which releases gas in the channel and the time during which it remains open. In the experiments, Andrew found that the angle at which the fish changes direction is almost entirely determined by the duration of the inflation, while its speed is almost entirely determined by the nozzle diameter. This "decoupling" of the two parameters, he said, is something that biologists have observed real fish.

Fish can perform maneuvers 20 or 30 discharge, before exhausting the carbon dioxide cartridge. A new version of the fish, which must be able to swim continuously for about 30 minutes, will use carbon di oxide in the water instead of the carbon di oxide from the inflated channels, but otherwise it will use the same model design movements body than its predecessor.

Daniella plans to experiment the robot in the environment of real fish, to gather detailed information about their behavior in their natural environment information. According to Barry Trimmer, professor of biology at Tufts University, Their algorithms and control theory are almost designed with the idea that they have rigid systems and the principle of the soft robot is based on the certainty. Coping with uncertainty will still be able to control the machines, so we have much more powerful machines said the Professor. For now, the robotic fish is only a prototype but in the near future, it could be used in order to study these aquatic animals in their natural environment.

Robots Termites, Who Work By Coordinating

Inspired by the example of termites, researchers have programmed robots to construct buildings without any central instructions. These robots are of complex shapes without central instructions. According to Eliza Grinnell of Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; these robots are of complex shapes work without central instructions.

Justin Werfel the first author of the studies says that all their research was inspired by termites, Werfel is one of a researcher at the Wyss Institute for engineering inspired by biology at Cambridge. He added that they discovered the amazing constructions that those small insects could do from that they have created programs and robots that could act very similar way that of the termites. The termites are working on local information rather than a central organization.

Termites can build structures of several meters without requiring a coordinated strategy. Instead, they use simple instructions provided by their peers and the environment to know where to put the next piece of the mound and finally build a mound adapted to their environment. This use of local information is called stigmergy. Justin Werfel and his colleagues have used it to design algorithms that reflect the behavior of termites, which they then applied to a group of robots building.

Each robot follows only a few simple rules: instructions are the same for any structure built by robots and traffic laws that apply to the specific structure. Equipped with sensors, robots are moving along a grid, lifting and depositing bricks. If they perceive a brick on their way, they carry it to the next free space. “The traffic can only go in one direction between two adjacent sites, which maintain a flow of robots and material movement in the structure," says Justin Werfel. If they did things without order, they would find themselves easily trapped in their building.

Researchers have therefore implemented security controls that allow robots to consider where there are already bricks and where there should be. To determine the rules, researchers start of the final structure. Its analysis to determine the number of rules that robots must follow. Once they are set, robots with the independent control have several advantages. “A robot may break but the rest continue “said the authors.” No critical element exists which can compromise the whole of its failure.".

According to the researchers, it is possible to consider using this type of robots to build structures for human use in a dangerous or difficult situation such as making shelter after an earthquake, underwater or even in another planet. An application in the shorter term could form sandbag dikes for controlling flood concluded by Justin Werfel.

A robot spider that moves on its own thread!

A group of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, has developed a robot spider capable of moving in a vacuum vertically along a solid wire that fabricated from a thermoplastic adhesive. Such robots could be used for extraterrestrial exploration adapting to changing terrain. LiYu Wang, a member of the team, told in detail. The spider robot developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich moves vertically along a solid wire. It manufactures thereof at progressively from thermoplastic adhesive sticks which is heated and stretched. It can carry payloads up to 10.9 kg in its current configuration.

A team of researchers from Bio -Inspired Robotics Laboratory (BIRL) has unveiled this robot spider that produces itself a plastic wire which he uses to travel into space, vertical. In their scientific article published in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, they explain that the interest of this innovation is that it can be used to develop hybrid robots to land and air time capable of carrying payloads. Another advantage of the system is that the robot adapts the thickness of the wire according to the weight it carries.

The technical challenge with which the team had to deal BIRL was to ensure that the robot makes its wire while moving with only physical support of wire itself. It was therefore necessary to develop an autonomous system capable of producing the wire associated with a mechanism for moving and guiding. The robot weighs 185 grams to 18 cm tall, 5 wide and 3 thick. “The mechanical part includes mechanisms extrusion and pultrusion," says LiYu Wang, one of the researchers involved in the project , which is also a member of the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology). The technology uses the thermoplastic glue stick, the same as we use for other jobs.

The adhesive is heated to between 65 and 75 ° C to be extruded through a nozzle into a process similar to the spider secretion produced by the ampullary gland. A second phase: glue spots pultrusion be spun stretching and solidify upon contact with air according to Newton's law of thermodynamics. The robot is operated by two motors. The first serves to urge the glue stick through the heating system and the nozzle on a linear axis via a ball screw system. The second motor mechanism actuates the “deformation - locomotion”, which consists of two wheels of 12 mm diameter which will both stretch the wire while sliding the robot progressively. Everything is powered by two lithium -ion batteries.

In its current configuration, the robot can carry a maximum load of 10.9 kg moving at 12 inches per minute. The robot that spins a web like a spider "The advantage of this technology lies in its flexibility, which allows you to adjust the thickness of the wire so that the robot can adapt to different loads while remaining self-sufficient," says Wang LiYu. He also confirmed that the system could be replicated on larger robots by adapting the configuration of extrusion pultrusion accordingly. The next step for the team is to replace BIRL wheels legs, so that the robot can move on a solid surface, but also to switch over to another, like a spider on its web. The researchers believe that the solution would be to create legs inspired by the gecko with adhesive pads for grip. With this, the robot could then weave a fabric by forming vertical and horizontal on which it may then travel.

A Nanorobot Based Bacteria Is Able To Cure Cancer

Robotics continues to fascinate and impress throughout his innovations. This is again the case with these revolutionary nanorobots designed based bacteria that are put at the service of your health.

This is again the Asian continent comes this robotic innovation should be a scientific and technological advance among the most notable of years. Thus, if the Chinese were able to introduce a nanorobot inside a human body in September 2013, in South Korea these robots bacteria are capable of treating cancer has emerged, in Chonnam National University.

The scientific team behind this scientific discovery announced success in eliminating tumors in animals through the use of robots designed based on bacteria. However, a small precision is needed; these nano robots, also called bacteriabots are composed of genetically modified bacteria and microscopic structures and filled with anti- cancer drug solutions. Thus, studies in laboratory animals have shown that harmless bacteria component of nanorobots have “attacked “the infected cells, targeting priority.

In addition, through immune histo chemistry performed a few days after injection of genetically modified bacteria, the researchers found that the tumors were directly targeted by bacteribots; once it arrived in the vicinity of the tumor cell, these free the anti cancer drug solutions that spread at an impressive rate, neutralizing the tumor quickly.

 Finally, Park Jong- Oh, who participated in these experiments within the team from the University of Chonnam, “This research is important for the development of a new biomedical nanorobot and a vector for administration of active drugs that can overcome the limitations of current methods of diagnosis and treatment of cancers.

Our goal is to develop medical micro-robots or nanorobots capable of diagnosing and treating a large number of difficult to cure diseases, building on the convergence of medicine and technology. This is a really encouraging scientific breakthrough for the health! At the office, the team is appreciative of the progress offered nanorobotics and we look forward to these microscopic robots come to the end of cancer.

NASA unveils the first robot Super Ball Bot for landing on Titan, a moon of Saturn

NASA multiplies space exploration and it has unveiled a new kind of robot that will be able to lie on the floor of Titan, Saturn's moon, thanks to its particularly amazing abilities. Super Ball Bot is the new prototype rover designed by NASA. Whose main purpose will be to successfully land on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Indeed, the agency is not limited only to missions lunar and Martian exploration but also wants to gather data about other stellar objects in our solar system.

In this case, the observation of Titan is interesting since the satellite has many features common to Earth, even if it is more akin to a primitive version of our planet. One of the main similarities is the climate on the surface of Titan; since the winds are present and form dunes, hills and cliffs. Quite surprising it that also has seasonal changes as such of Earth. Super Ball Bot represents the first fruits of this exploration mission. And he also has very special characteristics: it is completely designed with only limps.

As we can see from the picture above, the rover is able to move in a rather strange way since it gives the impression of sagging then recover while going forward. Super Ball Bot actually works on the principle of tensegrity. Tensegrity is an architectural principle in which the ability of a structure to stabilize the forces of tension and compression distributed therein and will be balanced.

Structures established by the tensegrity are stabilized, not by the strength of their individual components, but the distribution and balance of mechanical stresses in the entire structure. Main advantage is its less weight while Curiosity weighs nearly a ton (900kg), this robot will be much lighter and easier landing on Titan. However there are still some challenges to control its management and its movements.

NASA explained that if this prototype was validated, it could then launch an exploratory mission and release large number of these robots explorers on the surface of Titan. In any case, it is exciting to see that the U.S. space agency is exploring many opportunities to learn about our solar system. We have to wait for the mission success and to learn more about Titan.