Robotics > Open Source

The RoboEarth Cloud Engine (Rapyuta) is an open source platform for robotics applications, which helps processor intensive tasks to be carried out remotely. Researchers from five universities in Europe are contributing to the development of the platform. As the calculations are done remotely, this makes carrying out a variety of difficult tasks easier for robots, which, in turn will make less expensive, smaller, lighter, faster and more intelligent robots possible. Computing environments attached to each other may create robotic teams as well. Rapyuta is chosen as its name upon Hayao Miyazaki’s film Castle in the Sky (originally Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta). Video Credit: RoboEarth.org Read More

Gumstix Inc., the premier provider of Linux computers-on-modules (COMs), today announced official support for ROS, the open source Robot Operating System originally created by Willow Garage, on its ARM-based line of Overo COMs For more detail visit: http://www.deskeng.com/articles/aabjaj.htm https://www.gumstix.com/     Read More

IBM’s Watson AI program is a unique artificial intelligence computer system with a capability of grasping the slight differences in natural human language and answering the questions that are asked by human users. It has a wide range of data and can give answers even with evidences. It was specifically designed to answer the questions on the quiz show Jeopardy! Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will be provided with a modified version of an IBM Watson system in order to develop new markets and Big Data research: RPI is the first university receiving a version of IBM Watson system. Rensselaer, which is the oldest technical university in the United States is […] Read More

3D printing becomes popular in everything from bio-printing to architectural structures, and so does in robotics. With 3D printed parts InMoov is a humanoid robot designed and built by Gael Langevin of Factices Ateliers in France. InMoov which was designed with Blender is running on MyRobotLab and Arduino and it runs on batteries. It is a do-it-yourself printable robot with an open source. Gradually the parts of InMoov are made: first, only a hand, and then the arms and the head. InMoov is standing on casters temporarily till it will have its own feet. The robot might be regarded as on the edge of the Uncanny Valley because of its outlook, nevertheless, it […] Read More

Under its Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program, DARPA is trying to achieve advances in robotics that will enable better design and fabrication of robots, which will have enhanced mobility and manipulation in natural, undefined environments. Another goal is improve the capabilities of robots by better design tools, fabrication methods and control algorithms. More details about the program can be found here. By its DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) program, all these goals will be put to test. This is a competition where robotics companies will compete to come up with the best robot control system, in order to satisfy the requirements set by DARPA, for a better robot that can […] Read More

The open source Robot Operating System (ROS) has recently celebrated its five year anniversary. We had made previous entries in Robotic Magazine about ROS, please see one of them here: https://www.roboticmagazine.com/software-ai/robot-operating-system-grows-exponentially which we had published when ROS was 3 years old. In that post, we were saying that the number of code packages had reached 1600, and it was growing exponentially. Today, two years later, that trend has not changed and now ROS has 3699 Public work packages. There are now more than 90 robot brands running on ROS. In order to get more facts and details, please visit Willow Garage website at: https://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2012/11/29/ros-celebrates-five-year-anniversary In the video below, you can […] Read More

Today we would like to publish a new humanoid robot platform, but this one is yet in the development stage. We still wanted to share it with you as it looks like a promising model and a really attractive looking one. Our thanks to James Nordstrom of humanoidrobotplatform. If you have similar projects, please contact us. Here are the details of the robot: Robot Name:    Humanoid Platform Category:  Humanoid Robot Made By:   Nordstrom Robotics Country:  USA Date of manufacture or date of introduction: 2012 – In prototype phase Introduction: The Humanoid Platform is a fully programmable, six foot tall, durable, low cost universal robot that closely resembles the human form and […] Read More

Menlo Park, CA – May 9, 2012 Willow Garage today announced the formation of The Open Source Robotics Foundation, Inc.  The OSRF is an independent, non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community.  Their mission is to support the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research, education, and product development. In conjunction with the formation of the OSRF, the Board of Directors was also announced.  The Board of Directors comprises a worldwide collection of educators, leaders and visionaries in the field of robotics, including: Wolfram Burgard.  Dr. Burgard is a professor at the University of Freiburg where he leads the Laboratory for Autonomous Intelligent […] Read More

Here is an interesting and very informative article provided to us by Frank Tobe of The Robot Report, from his blog Everything-Robotic. “Pure play” is an investment term that refers to a company which is exclusively focused on a particular product or service. An investor buys stock in pure play companies in order to obtain a market share in the industry as well as in the company. Robotics, to many, are just a tool to accomplish business tasks in an efficient way. To me, making robots to achieve those goals is an industry in itself and deserving of consideration for investment because of good prospects for the future. Hence the […] Read More

The Robobusiness conference organized by Robotics Trends took place on Nov. 2 and 3, in Sheraton Hotel, downtown Boston. A lot of  well known robotics firms were represented with their high level managers or presidents. Below you can find our notes from the sessions we attended, which highlight important points and give you a brief summary of each session… November 2 Robots that matter – Colin Angle, CEO and Co-Founder – irobot Colin Angle discussed the importance of understanding the needs of the customers and making robots that solve real world problems, rather than spending time and money into products that look cool but can not address any needs. He gave […] Read More