Hasta La Ideas

News: NASA is developing robots made from a tensile system of interlocking rods and cables that can transform from flat components into a ball shape then tense and flex to roll around the surface of planets.

Researchers at the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA‘s Ames Research Center in California designed the Super Ball Bot robots as a more flexible and robust alternative to conventional probes, which can be damaged by the impact of landing on a planet’s surface.

“Current robot designs are delicate, requiring combinations of devices such as parachutes, retrorockets and impact balloons to minimise impact forces and to place a robot in a proper orientation,” said the research team led by Vytas SunSpiral and Adrian Agogino.

“Instead, we propose to develop a radically different robot based on a ‘tensegrity’ built purely upon tensile and compression elements.”

Constructed from a network of rods and cables that surround and protect the scientific payload at its centre, the lightweight collapsible design is developed using the principles of tensegrity pioneered by American architect and engineer Buckminster Fuller in the 1960s.

Instead of employing wheels or tracks, the robots move by using a system of motors to shorten and lengthen cables connecting the rods, which changes the balance of tension in the structure and causes it to jerk and roll across the ground.

The flexibility of the system enables the different points that touch the ground to adjust according to what they’re interacting with, allowing the robots to navigate across hills, debris and uneven terrain.

The robots could be flat-packed for transportation and unfold into a three-dimensional configuration in preparation for landing on a planet’s surface, at which point the structure would compress to absorb the energy of the impact.

“These robots can be lightweight, absorb strong impacts, are redundant against single-point failures, can recover from different landing orientations and are easy to collapse and uncollapse,” the researchers added. “We believe tensegrity robot technology can play a critical role in future planetary exploration.”

Groups of dozens or even hundreds of probes could be launched onto a planet and operate as a coordinated and interactive team to gather samples.

The scientists have constructed prototypes using poles around one metre in length to demonstrate their principles, but claim that much larger versions could be built to carry larger scientific instruments.

All images are courtesy of NASA.

The post NASA’s latest robot is designed to bounce
and roll across rough terrain appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Dutch designer Joris Laarman has developed a 3D-printing technique that allows a robot to draw metal structures in mid-air.

Joris Laarman‘s MX3D-Metal method combines a robotic arm typically used in car manufacturing with a welding machine to melt and then deposit metal, to create lines that can be printed horizontally, vertically, or in curves without the need for support structures.

Following on from the machine Laarman developed last year that used a quick-drying resin, this method of printing makes it possible to create 3D objects on any given surface independent of inclination and smoothness. The technique can be used to print with metals including stainless steel, aluminium, bronze or copper.

“By adding small amounts of molten metal at a time, we are able to print lines in mid air,” explained Laarman.

The metal lines can also be printed to intersect with each other, creating self-supporting structures, and the robotic head can build up several separate lines at once by adding to each one in turn.

The designer is currently using the technique to make a 3D-printed metal bench, which will go on display as part of an exhibition of his work at Friedman Benda Gallery in New York this May, though the final form of the piece is still in development.

“The nice thing about working with new technology like this is that the formal language of the design follows what is possible with the technique,” he said. “While the technique is developing the possibilities change.”

However, Laarman believes the approach can also be used 3D-printed architectural constructions and concrete reinforcements. “Because the technology is not affected by gravity, it could even be used in space,” he said.

Previously, printing with metal was achieved through selective laser melting (SLM) or electron beam printing; SLM uses a high-powered laser beam to create three-dimensional parts by fusing fine metallic powders together, while electron beam printing uses a similar technique with an electron beam and is printed inside a vacuum. However, these techniques are expensive and produce very small objects.

“All these are ways to print in metal on a very small scale,” said Laarman. “The method we developed is for a larger scale and doesn’t need a support structure like all other methods.”

Laarman’s technique isn’t restricted to just printing in layers either, becuse the print head of MX3D-Metal can approach the object from any angle and print lines that intersect in order to create a self-supporting structure. “3D printing like this is still unexplored territory and leads to a new formal language that is not bound by additive layers,” he said.

The process can also be scaled down to create more refined structures without the need for scaffolding or other supportive add-ons.

The software that controls the robot arm and welder was developed in collaboration with American 3D software company Autodesk. “The combination of robot/welding is driven by different types of software that work closely together,” Laarman revealed, adding that the software will eventually be developed into an interface that allows the user to print directly from design programs.

“Vertical, horizontal or spiraling lines require different settings, such as pulse time, pause-time, layer height or tool orientation,” he continued. “All this information is being incorporated in the software.”

Last year, Petr Novikov and Saša Jokić, two interns at Joris Laarman Lab created the MX3D-Resin, which allowed the creation of chunky three-dimensional rods from a polymer, rather than slowly building up two-dimensional layers like a standard 3D printer. From these initial experiments, Laarman discovered a way of doing the same with metal.

Laarman graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2003, and first received international recognition for his decorative Heatwave radiator produced by Dutch design brand Droog. He set up his own lab in 2004 in Amsterdam with partner and film-maker Anita Staris. Laarman’s previous work has included chairs designed to mimic the proportion and functionality of human bone.

The post 3D-printing robot by Joris Laarman
draws freeform metal lines appeared first on Dezeen.

French auto brand Renault has designed a concept car that launches its own drone from a hatch in the roof (+ slideshow).

The Renault Kwid Concept, unveiled at the Delhi Auto Show, is the first car to come with its very own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which could help the driver scout ahead for traffic, take aerial photos of the surrounding landscape and detect obstacles in the road.

The device, referred to as a Flying Companion, is stored in a rotating rear portion of the Kwid’s roof when not in use. When activated, the panel slides open and the quadrocopter – named after the device’s four motors – can be operated in one of two modes.

In automatic mode, the drone flies along a pre-programmed flying sequence using in-built GPS. In manual mode, the UAV is controlled via a tablet built into the dashboard of the car.

“Customers in new markets are much younger,” explained Serge Mouangue, brand manager and innovative cooperative laboratory manager for Renault. “Their expectations are different and customers are basically gamers. They tend to take a closer interest in technology and want to enjoy themselves.”

The Kwid resembles an off-road buggy thanks to the oversized wings, mud guards and wheel arches. However, designers at Renault have suggested the car will come in two-wheel drive instead of four – meaning it’s more likely to be for city dwellers than rural ones.

The Kwid will come with a 1.2-litre turbocharged engine with a dual-clutch transmission, allowing the owner to drive in automatic or manual mode. Renault has suggested that it could also come with an electric motor. The interior features two-tone white seats with a yellow-trimmed dash. The chairs are wrapped in a web of white elastic polymer to give the impression the passengers are sat in a bird’s nest, according to designers on the project.

The driver is sat in the centre of a row of three, allowing the same model to be used in both left-hand, and right-hand drive markets.

In the rear, passengers can adjust the air-conditioning via a panel on the back of the driver’s seat, which also features ventilation ducts built in.

While just a concept for now, Renault has said the Kwid will go on sale within two years, with particular focus on the Indian market. “Young customers in India are often trend setters, looking forward to pushing the envelope when it comes to technology and enjoyable drives,” explained Gilles Normand, chairman of Renault’s Asia-Pacific Region.

“The Kwid Concept, with its Flying Companion, meets this forward-looking spirit with both its dynamic styling and hyper connectivity,” he added.

The post Renault unveils Kwid Concept car
equipped with traffic-spotting drone appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in this movie filmed at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, artist Gijs van Bon shows us his machine called Skryf, which deposits a trail of sand behind it to form letters on the ground. 

Skryf consists of an adapted CNC milling machine on wheels, which van Bon controls with a laptop via a simple piece of software he developed.

“I can just type in text and it converts it to a code that the machine accepts,” he explains. “It writes letter by letter and in the four hours that I write per day it will write about 160 metres.”

Van Bon travels to different festivals around the world with Skryf and chooses new pieces of literature to write on the ground in each place.

“I’ve been with Skryf throughout Europe and once to Australia,” he explains. “In Eindhoven, I’m writing the poems of Merel Morre. She is the city poet of Eindhoven; she reflects on what is happening now in the city.”

Skryf’s carefully-written lines of poetry are destroyed by passersby or the wind almost as quickly as it can write them. Van Bon says that the whole idea behind the project is that the lines of poetry exist only momentarily.

“When you’re writing one [line of] text, another one is going away because people start walking through it,” he explains. “Once I’ve finished writing, I walk the same way back but it’s all destroyed. It’s ephemeral, it’s just for this moment and afterwards it’s left to the public and to the wind.”

We drove around Eindhoven in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music in the movie is a track called Family Music by Eindhoven-based hip hop producer Y’Skid.

You can listen to more music by Y’Skid on Dezeen Music Project and watch more of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies here.

The post Gijs van Bon’s Skryf machine “writes
poems on the ground with sand” appeared first on Dezeen.

News: online retail giant Amazon has presented a prototype for a service that uses flying robots to deliver packages to customers within half an hour of ordering (+ movie).

The service would be called Amazon Prime Air and would be available to customers living within a ten mile radius of one of Amazon’s distribution centres.

The unmanned aerial vehicles are called “octocopters” because they feature eight propellers and Amazon claims they could be implemented as soon as 2015.

A video released by Amazon shows a drone collecting a package inside a plastic container from a conveyor belt at a distribution centre before taking off and delivering it to the customer’s doorstep. The flying robots would be directed by GPS to coordinates specified by the customer.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made the announcement yesterday on American investigative news programme 60 Minutes and explained that the technology is already in place, but that the legal issues surrounding such an operation are likely to delay its implementation.

“The hardest challenge in making this happen is going to be demonstrating to the standards of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) that this is a safe thing to do,” Bezos told 60 Minutes.

“I don’t want anybody to think this is just around the corner. This is years of additional work from this point,” he said, before stating that he hopes it could be made available to customers in four to five years.

“We hope the FAA’s rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015,” said Amazon on a webpage dedicated to the project. “We will be ready at that time. One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today.”

“The FAA is actively working on rules and an approach for unmanned aerial vehicles that will prioritise public safety,” the company added. “Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards.”

During a demonstration, Bezos pointed out that the unmanned vehicle can still fly if one of its rotors suffers a failure. “I know this looks like science fiction; it’s not,” he said.

Sydney startup Flirtey claimed to have launched “the world’s first unmanned aerial vehicle delivery technology” earlier this year, using flying robots to deliver books directly to customers based on the location of their mobile phone.

The post Amazon tests drones that could deliver
packages “in less than 30 minutes” appeared first on Dezeen.