iMobot that can rolls, crawls and creeps

iMobot that can crawl, stand up and rotate as a camera platform

Graham Ryland and Professor Harry Cheng developed iMobot while Ryland was studying for his master's degree in mechanical engineering and conducting research in Cheng's Integration Engineering Laboratory at UC Davis.

iMobot can be used for research and education tool according to the genius creators. It can also be used for industrial applications for prototyping complex robotics. Besides, this little creepy technology may eventually form the basis of robots for search and rescue operations. It has four controllable degree of freedom, two rotating joints, the individual module can crawl, or stand up and act as an autonomous camera platform. I'm really interested for the next move of this newly invented technology. Please check out related video below:

The Powered Suit Skeletonics

A small team of Japanese Engineering Students made this project called Skeletonics, a hybrid words "skeleton" and "mechanics". The purpose is to extend the movement of the human arms and legs without the aid of any motors. The whole suit is made of aluminum sheets and pipes. The advantage of this passive design over the active exoskeleton is the significant reduction of weight and complexity from motors and software. It took up to six months to complete as a basic working unit.

Here is the related video for you to see the basic sketches. Unfortunately, specifications as well as their website are written in Japanese. The use of the Google translate is a little help for you to see the specific details. Anyway, the video below is pretty awesome and hope you will enjoy watching this.



Thnak you for reading and watching!

Monirobo Deployed to Furishima Nuclear Daiichi Power Station

Japan is now experiencing their Nuclear Crisis due to devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake last March 11, 2011. One of the major affected of this disaster is the Furishima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. It was reportedly that Japan had deployed robots which are remotely controlled to that said contaminated plant which are harmful to humans.



Monirobo

The purpose of these monirobo is to measure the radiation level to the contaminated site. There are two colors available: red and yellow. The named "Monirobo" was derived from "Moni" which means monitor and "robo" which means robot and was developed by Nuclear Technology Center, at Japan's Ministry of Education.

Monirobo is about 32 inches long, 52 inches in diameter, 52 inches high and weighs about 1,300 pounds. It can travel up to 131 ft or 40m per minute. It has camera and mechanical arms with various measuring instruments. It can also be operated remotely from a distance up to 1.1 km.

Japan is really intelligent in terms of technology. With the technology they have, they can use it in terms of crisis like this. Go Japan!