To boldly go where no one has gone before...
The Rhex from Boston Dynamics is true to these words, it is not a wheeled or tracked robot but 'n hexapod robot. Well not quite really a hexapod, Rhex got six legs right, but they don't have complicated movements like an insect but has six rotational legs, that are spring loaded.

The Rhex is modelled after a cockroach to mimic the gait of the insects.
Rhex is one tough robot, fall down rocks, walk thru water and can even climb stairs.

Shown here the Rhex can even jump up and over obstacles:

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ntlI-pDUxPE )

Rhex can quickly adapt to different surfaces, with a heavy footfall on concrete and a light touch on sand and gravel.

Darpa basically funded this project, with the following Universities participated on the initial RHex project:

• The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
• McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
• University of California, Berkeley, CA
• Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
• Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Now for the juicy bits, Rhex can run up to 9,72km/h ( 6 mph ) climb slopes up to 45 degrees and leap over 30cm ditches and flip itself over. Will autonomously follow a line on the ground without any operator control and get this can even walk if 4 of its legs are broken, talk about a tough bot. Rhex comes from a long line of version with each having specific qualities and the latest being a light weight and highly maneuverable.

Weighing in a mere 12,5kg ( 27,5lb ) without batteries and have an endurance of up to 6 hours. The batteries are tactical high voltage batteries and weights only 1,4kg ( 3,1lb ), Rhex takes two of them. Rated at 6,2Ah and 28,8V each making the Rhex actually an efficient robot, to tranverse such a weight range of conditions.

http://kodlab.seas.upenn.edu/XRHex/XRHex

Visit the official Boston Dynamics website at http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_rhex.html

Also the wikipedia site at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhex

For any further info on the Rhex.

Please feel free to leave a comment below, I would like to make this a great blog about robots and your feedback would greatly be appreciated.

Sorry guys and gals for not posting last week, had to do double shift...bummer.

But I'm back and want to show you this cool robot!

It fantastic, it's stupendous, it's marvelous, it's Sphero!

Sphero is this cool, IOS/Android controlled robot, that can be used in various ways. It's a colour changing robot, it's waterproof, and nearly indestructible. ( If my wife is reading this, I don't want one, I need one, pretty please!! ) It can even be used as a controller, to control new games on your IOS/Android devices.

The new version can go up to 2,1 m/s ( 7 ft/s ), that's fast for 'n little guy. With it brains,battery and motor protected inside the tough outer polycarbonate casing, and with optional nubby cover Sphero really can go anywhere.

Please check out Sphero it is really cool. It even changes reality, you might have heard of augmented reality, but this really is a game changer.

I also include these videos, just to show off the little wonder that is Sphero.

Move over dr mc dreamy, Da Vinci is here to help. Well not quite Leonardo Da Vinci, but Da Vinci the surgical robot. It has four arms equipped with surgical instruments and cameras that a doctor controls with a stereoscopic ( fancy word for 3D ) vision. The doctor or surgeon sits at the console and looks through two small monitors, one for each eye to give the 3D view.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m8FEuwiChw&feature=player_detailpage )

Now get this they actually named this after Leonardo Da Vinci's Robot, who knew?

This is a model based on Leonardo's drawings...

That's enough for the history lessons now let's get back to modern era..

I took my time researching this "robot", because I want to give an unbiassed display of what it really is.

There is good and then there is the bad and then well there is the not so good but what can you do.

First the good, Da Vinci has been used to improve upon the doctor but not to replace the doctor, so mc steamy you're safe for now. Da Vinci is 'n remote controlled tool, if you boil it down to the nuts and bolts. But a very fancy and well cool tool, that has a few valid points. The jointed-wrist exceeds the natural range of motion of the human hand, who wants needs a double jointed doctor anyhow...

The motion of the "instruments" or arms can be scaled meaning big movements on the doctor hand will actually be very small movements on the robots side. Tremor reduction is also a big part, doctors get tired after long operations but da vinci stays steady as a rock.

With improved dexterity and great precision the da Vinci Surgical system makes it possible to perform minimally invasive procedures, with benefits less pain and less blood loss ( told you about the ugly )

Now for the bad... Ta da dum

Calling Donald Trump, calling Donal Trump where are you?

Costing a massive $2 million, and if that's not the worst the disposable supplies normally cost $1 500 per procedure, with huge maintenance costs, besides this over 1,840 da Vinci Robots have been installed worldwide ( As of July 2012 ) . Doctors need expensive training, and they must operate on twelve to eighteen patients before they get the hang of the systems. And now get this, minimally invasive operations can take up to twice as long as a traditional surgery...? What? That can't be right... Then what are all the fuss about, well see it like a stepping stone, today we have the da Vinci S, and tomorrow, we will have a fully autonomous doctor that does the scanning ( X-ray, cat scans etc ) diagnose and even performs the procedure by itself. Remember the days when mobile phones could only phone and text and nothing else?

And now for the not so good...

The robot is difficult for users to learn and has not been shown to be more effective that traditional surgeries. There have also been claims of patients injuries caused by stray electrical currents released from inappropriate parts of the surgical tips. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that side effects and blood loss in robotically-performed hysterectomies are no better than those performed by traditional surgery, despite the significantly greater cost of the system. As of 2013, the FDA is investigating problems with the da Vinci robot, including deaths during surgeries that used the device; a number of related lawsuits are also underway.

This does not seem to good for Da Vinci, but problems need to be sorted and the wrinkles ironed out. I believe robots will not replace doctors or anyone else, but if used correctly will enhance our abilities, cut costs and provide better solutions to tough problems.

Right you golf lovers you will like this one. You know Rory Mcilroy? Golf extraordinaire! But he can't keep up...with Jeff, a machine.

Here is a clip of Rory and Jeff dishing it out. And by the way Jeff has a sense of humour to top it all of.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft2fLuz9mF0 if the video doesn't show )

Jeff is no normal piece of steel with a few motors that whacks a ball. Golf Laboratories don't give out a lot of information, but they state that Jeff can swing from 0.1mph ( 0.16 kmh ) for putters, and up to 120mph ( 193kmh ) for drivers, with extreme precision. You can fiddle around with the friendly user interface and adjust literally everything. With a repeatability of 0.00002", to put that is perspective human hair is about 0.003" thick. So if you stack pennies as high as 4 empire state buildings on top of another, and you put twenty pennies next to that, that is the same as 0.00002" accurate.

Here is a pic of the grip mechanism:

This helps Jeff to incorporate the double pendulum effect, to mimic the upper and lower arms during the swing.

Preparing to swing:

Jeff mentions he uses GPS, but I personally thinks he uses GPS only for a rough estimation. Looks like the operator adjust the swing to hit the targets, imagine if you added a LiDAR system, and put it on a golf course next to the big boys in golf. Watch out Tiger Woods! Jeff is aiming for your lunch money!

Please feel free to leave a comment..

Till next time

This is my very first blog so let's go.

This blog will be about my love for Robots, big, small the good and the downright creepy.

The first on my list I want to share with everyone is Rollin' Justin.

All the way from Germany's DLR ( Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. ) The German Aerospace Centre. 

This dexterous robot makes catching look easy, it can even catch two balls at the same time. The humanoid robot uses 51 servomotors and can move at a speed of 6 km/h ( 3,7 mph )

Here is the official web page.  http://www.dlr.de/rm/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-5471/

A couple of youtube clips of Justin showing off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93WHRSKg3gE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ylzT3x0ruo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDKXT1ZhEgA

I am not going bore you with all the technical details but if your into the nitty-gritty stuff and have to know how it works check out their site they have a lot of info.

That's all from me, check out next week when I will talk about another Robot. And remember Robots are the future, don't fear them. They are here to serve us.