Featured Company - Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics, originating from MIT, is a current developer of cutting edge robotics. This company is known for its DARPA-funded research, and it continues to produce products that are likely to revolutionize military operations in the future.

Over the last several years, Boston Dynamics' most popular project has been BigDog, a four-legged robot designed as a twenty-first century pack mule for soldiers. Amazingly, this robot can walk over very uneven terrain and even stabilize itself when pushed sideways. BigDog can carry over 300 pounds of whatever a soldier needs: weapons, ammunition, communications equipment, maybe even a wounded soldier. While BigDog is impressive, DARPA wants even more capability for a final design, calling the desired product a Legged Squad Support System (LS3). Boston Dynamics is working on a prototype for the LS3 which it calls AlphaDog. The goal is a robot that can carry 400 pounds, function with minimal noise, and walk twenty miles without refueling.

The most impressive project today is definitely the PETMAN, or Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin. This humanoid robot is over five feet tall and about 180 pounds in weight. It was designed for testing military uniforms, but we all know how versatile the human body can be. Perhaps terminators and robot butlers are not so distant a possibility. After all, would it be so strange for people to prefer robots to fight wars rather than friends and family members? And might wealthy families invest in upgradable, tireless android servants instead of traditional domestic workers?

Featured Company - AeroVironment

This company is based in California and was founded by Paul MacCready. AeroVironment specializes in flying machines, most notably unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and solar-powered airplanes. Innovation has been a prime goal of this company for something like forty years. This company created an all-electric, solar-powered airplane, named Solar Challenger, that successfully flew from France to England in 1981. No fuel! Think about that for a second: an international flight that used zero gallons of fuel. In the same decade, AeroVironment collaborated on the GM Sunraycer, a solar-powered car that won the first World Solar Challenge.

Two of the most significant projects that AeroVironment has today are Raven and Global Observer. The Raven is a UAV that is small enough to be launched by hand. Over 13,000 have been made, and many of them are used by the United States military (especially in Iraq). Various foreign countries also use the Raven, such as the U.K. and Netherlands. Once launched, the Raven can fly for over an hour, reaching speeds exceeding thirty miles per hour and altitudes around two miles up.

The Global Observer is still in development, but it is very promising. It is a high-altitude UAV that should become a versatile alternative to some space satellites. Soaring eleven miles above Earth, the Global Observer burns hydrogen to power its four motors for up to a week. When it runs low on fuel, it will be relieved by a second Global Observer and land for refueling. It may require two UAVs to take the place of one satellite, but flying on hydrogen is cheaper than launching a huge rocket into space. Some of the desired uses for the Global Observer include spying on terrorists, capturing real-time data on weather and natural disasters, and serving as as communication relay.

AeroVironment's latest innovation is called the Nano Hummingbird. This miniscule UAV is capable of flying in any direction and hovering, just like a live hummingbird. It has a built-in camera for surveillance and weighs less than one AA battery. Its wingspan is only six inches long! The DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird is likely to generate controversy in the coming years. While such devices are great for spying on terrorists, the possibility exists of spying on local citizens (either by the government or other citizens). America has been struggling to find a satisfactory balance between security and privacy lately, and the Nano Hummingbird will not make that struggle any easier. But it will probably save some soldiers' lives and make their jobs a little safer.

Featured Company - Gridbots

Gridbots is a robotics company based in Ahmedabad, India. It was founded by Pulkit Gaur, who has been awarded a TED fellowship. His company focuses on developing robots that are “more intelligent” and can be used in everyday life. Gridbots' products range from smart surveillance cameras to telepresence robots. This company also makes educational robots; ones that are user-friendly and designed for experimentation. The Turtle, for instance, is called the “do it yourself robot,” and it is claimed to have an assembly time of just fifteen minutes. It is accompanied by visual programming software and preset behavior modes to make first-timers' experiences that much easier.

Featured Company - Festo

Some companies are currently pushing the limits of new technology and design solutions. They are developing futuristic, exotic products to meet the needs of a world that demands extreme engineering. One of these companies is Festo, an industrial engineering and design company in Germany. Of primary interest to this blog is the Bionic Learning Network, a part of Festo that specializes in designs “inspired by nature” and collaborates with universities and other companies.

Festo's Bionic Learning Network has created some really cool products that challenge everyday views of robotics. Take the “bionic handling assistant” for example. Robotic arms are usually rigid, powerful, and jerky in their movements. Festo's alternative (whose appearance resembles the tentacles of Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2) is instead elegant, gentle, graceful, pneumatically powered, and was inspired by the elephant's trunk. Other projects created by Festo include modular robots, flying robot penguins, 3D printers, moving walls, flying robot jellyfish, and ion-propelled lighter-than-air robots that are reminiscent of Naboo starships. Can you imagine being able to honestly cite work on “bionic plasma drives” and flying robot penguins for your job history? What fun those Germans are having!

Another remarkable invention from Festo is the SmartBird. This feat of biomimicry is uncanny. The lightweight robotic bird has a mounted camera and flaps its wings like a real bird. This product has obvious applications in reconnaissance. The possibility, or perhaps inevitability, of robotic avian spies reminds me of a movie scene. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the heroes are followed by a flock of birds. One of them exclaims, “Spies of Saruman!” Maybe someday such a situation will be replicated in the real world. Imagine terrorists peering out of a cave, sighting a flock of birds and muttering to themselves, “Spies of America!”