Robots

BMW and Figure have entered into a commercial agreement to employ humanoid robots at the automaker’s plant in South Carolina. These are expected to be real assistants capable of replacing humans in labour-intensive processes.

Figure CEO Brett Adcock said he and his partners have already determined exactly what the androids will do. It is assumed that they will work in the body shop with sheet metal. In addition, some of them will find a place in the internal logistics department. This deal will be the first, or one of the first, where not robot testing, but their commercial use will be included.

Automakers and, among others, BMW, have considerable experience in the use of industrial robots. Therefore, it is easier to integrate androids into existing processes here than in other production facilities. In addition, the management of the car brand in Germany fully supports the initiative and considers it very promising. At first, a small batch of robots will be used, but as experience is gained, their number at the plant will increase.

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French company Bionic Bird has launched a startup called X-Fly to produce an adult toy of the same name. This flying machine resembles a hybrid of an insect and a bird, which is held in the air by the movement of wings. It has been given a carbon fibre frame and reinforced wing mounts and supports to survive the inevitable falls.

As the French military became interested in the product, it received a number of improvements over the original technology. These include a larger wingspan for planning and the ability to change the order of wing flaps when flying over obstacles. The device has been given gyroscopic and overload sensors to monitor its condition.

You can use a special remote control or a smartphone screen to control X-Fly – in any case, the result leaves much to be desired. An advanced self-diagnostic system is needed to “save” the device from pilot errors. X-Fly is too small to turn it into an FPV drone, plus its behaviour in the air is more complicated than it seems. The flight speed varies from 5 to 20 km/h, and the control range is limited to 100 metres.

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In a recent briefing, the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) reported on the severe health effects of loneliness on older Americans, which are comparable to smoking a packet of cigarettes every day.

However, we should not exaggerate the capabilities of Ellio and its analogues: no even the most perfect humanoid can reproduce live human communication, which is so lacking in lonely old people.

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Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois have skoonstructed the world’s smallest laser-guided robotic crab just 0.5mm long. These babies can bend, walk, crawl, spin and jump without the aid of electricity or hydraulics. All because they are made up of shape memory materials. Heating causes it to spread out and make it flat, while the thin glass coating returns the bot’s body to its original state when cooled.

The heating is done by means of a laser. In which direction the laser is swiped, the movement takes place – the beam moves to the left and the crabs jump to the left. The speed of movement is about half the length of the crab per second. Scientists also decided to play with geometry and created three-legged bugs that can stay on the water and rotate around their axis, and spiral octopuses that make small jumps.

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Squirrels and foxes are known to have the ability to make fantastic jumps in pursuit of prey. Alas, most of the current robots cannot boast of this.

In the arsenal of the US Army in recent years, a whole family of UAVs has appeared: in particular, the MQ-1 Predator attack drone and the MQ-4 Global Hawk transport drone. The development of ground-based drones, which have to operate in much more difficult conditions than their flying counterparts, is also continuing. For example, ground robots have big problems when overcoming rubble made of stones or deep trenches.

In search of living prototypes capable of performing such tasks, scientists “came out” on geckos and cockroaches. However, now we are talking about the ability of new robots to make instant decisions and manoeuvres in a fraction of a second.
This is exactly the kind of ability that squirrels possess.

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