Servo - November 2009

bots IN BRIEF

SAMARAI COPPER BOT

This is SAMARAI, a UAV that Lockheed Martin has been working on based on a monocopter platform. A monocopter is like a helicopter, except that the entire vehicle consists of a single rotating airfoil, making them somewhat impractical for manned flight. And, from the looks of things, more than a little dangerous — although the project was named SAMARAI after samara, which are those monocopter seed pod things that fly down off of trees (not after its efficiency at decapitations).

The SAMARAI project was supposed to produce a nanomonocopter about the same size as a seed pod (on the order of 1.5 inches long and 10 grams in weight), driven by a miniature rocket or jet thruster, able to send back streaming video (that was stabilized somehow), autonavigate, and deliver a two gram payload up to a kilometer away.

It’s not exactly clear what’s going on with this particular project.According to Danger Room, the SAMARAI project was canceled last year after completing Phase 1 of a DARPA nano air vehicle contract. Phase 2 of the contract, has gone to AeroVironment for this.

IT ONLY TAKES A SPARK...

SPARK stands for Starter Programs for Advanced Robotics Knowledge, and it’s iRobot’s new program to help improve robotics education for students in elementary school through college. While not too much seems to be happening at the moment, SPARK does have a lot of promising partners, including FIRST, CMU, BeatBots, Topobo, and even Paro.

All too often, programs like this don’t get past the concept+slick website phase which is where SPARK appears to be. Hopefully with the backing of iRobot and its partners, something substantial will become of this program.

http://spark.irobot.com/

DELICATE DIGITS

As if hobby robots don’t already have enough expensive bits, Craft House in Japan has just released a new $600 add-on for humanoids: these delicately beautiful five fingered hands.

Called “Melissa” hands, they are each controlled by a single servo and can easily grasp small objects. They’re not really cut out for fighting, and “it is necessary to attach a protector such as a glove.” Robot boxing, anyone?