Robotics & Automation News

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Flexiv Robotics unveils its innovations at Stanford Robotics Center opening

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Flexiv Robotics, a provider of general-purpose robotics solutions, participated in the recent opening of the Stanford Robotics Center (SRC), a groundbreaking facility dedicated to advancing robotics across industries including logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, art, space exploration, and home automation.

As a longstanding advocate of Stanford’s robotics department, and with Flexiv’s four founders being alumni, Flexiv’s support for the creation of the SRC highlights not only the university’s dedication to innovation and collaboration but also its strong industry ties.

Bringing together cross-disciplinary world-class researchers and industrial affiliates, the SRC is dedicated to exploring how robotics can impact how we live and work, improve healthcare and quality of life, and give people power to do things they could never do before. [Read more…] about Flexiv Robotics unveils its innovations at Stanford Robotics Center opening

Stanford University launches new, multidisciplinary and ‘unified’ robotics centre

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Stanford University’s robotics researchers, once dispersed in labs across campus, now have a unified, state-of-the-art space for groundbreaking research, education, and collaboration.

The basement beneath the Packard Electrical Engineering Building, once a hallway with researchers working behind closed doors, is now a bustling hub for collaboration. After many years of planning, fundraising, and development, the all-new Stanford Robotics Center officially opened its doors with a reception on November 1st.

The new facility is a bright, open, and vibrant space with a number of research bays arranged side-by-side. In one corner, a dancer pirouettes as her movements are digitized and projected on a nearby monitor.

Next door, a pair of robotic arms makes a bed while others prepare a meal. Not far away, a medical student gazes into stereoscopic lenses manipulating hand tools while a machine across the room performs a mock surgery.

[Read more…] about Stanford University launches new, multidisciplinary and ‘unified’ robotics centre

Toyota Research Institute and Stanford Engineering achieve ‘world’s first’ fully autonomous tandem drift sequence

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Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and Stanford Engineering have demonstrated what they say is “a world first” in driving research: autonomously drifting two cars in tandem.

For nearly seven years, the teams have collaborated on research to make driving safer. The experiments automate a motorsports maneuver called “drifting”, where a driver precisely controls a vehicle’s direction after breaking traction by spinning the rear tires – a skill transferable to recovering from a slide on snow or ice.

By adding a second car drifting in tandem, the teams have now more closely simulated dynamic conditions where cars must respond quickly to other vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists. [Read more…] about Toyota Research Institute and Stanford Engineering achieve ‘world’s first’ fully autonomous tandem drift sequence

Stanford scientists unveil new spring-assisted actuator: A replacement for traditional motors that could enhance next-gen robots

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By Laura Castañón

Researchers at Stanford have designed a spring-assisted actuator – a device that can accomplish dynamic tasks using a fraction of the energy previously required. (See video below.)

Whether it’s a powered prosthesis to assist a person who has lost a limb or an independent robot navigating the outside world, we are asking machines to perform increasingly complex, dynamic tasks.

But the standard electric motor was designed for steady, ongoing activities like running a compressor or spinning a conveyor belt – even updated designs waste a lot of energy when making more complicated movements. [Read more…] about Stanford scientists unveil new spring-assisted actuator: A replacement for traditional motors that could enhance next-gen robots

Stanford boffins invent 4D camera to improve robotic vision and augmented and virtual reality specs

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A team of researchers at Stanford have designed a 4D camera which could improve vision for applications in robotics and virtual and augmented reality technologies. 

The new vision technique could also be used in autonomous vehicles, add the researchers – Donald Dansereau, a postdoctoral fellow in electrical engineering, and Gordon Wetzstein, assistant professor of electrical engineering, and others.

The new camera Stanford has developed is a proof-of-concept and the university plans to start building a smaller prototype suitable for commercialisation in the coming months.  [Read more…] about Stanford boffins invent 4D camera to improve robotic vision and augmented and virtual reality specs

MIT reveals robot to inspect pipes, while Stanford shows ‘vine-like growing robot’

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Universities are doing a lot of interesting work in the area of robotics, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford are two of the most active in the field. 

Both universities showed similar robots this week, MIT’s being a bottle-shaped device which checks pipes and Stanford’s one a machine which is said to grow like a vine.

According to DigitalTrends.com, MIT’s PipeGuard team recently won $10,000 in the university’s competition and swims through pipes to detect any problems.

The YouTube video for the device (above) describes as a “leak detection robot for city water distribution systems”.

Stanford, which also made a video (below) of its strange plant- or worm-like organic robot, if it can be called that, said its invention “could be useful in search and rescue and medical applications”.

Commercial customers for the robots are probably already lined up and perhaps the two teams could spin out into startup companies.