Robots For All

 

Imagine building your own personal Rosie in 24 hours. That's what MIT researchers are setting out to accomplish.

MIT received a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation to re-invent how robots are designed and produced. The goal is to make desktop technology for the average person to be able to design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours.

Currently, it takes years to produce a robot, but this five-year project called "An Expedition in Computing for Compiling Printable Programmable Machines," wants everyday people, who need help with household tasks, to head to their local printing store to select a blueprint from a library of robotic designs and customize an easy-to-use robotic device that could solve the problem. Within 24 hours, the robot would be printed, assembled, fully programmed and operational. 

A Camera That Makes the Speed of Light Look Slow

What a week for pushing the limits of human knowledge. Not only are we closer to identifying the very particle that explains how the Universe is built -- we also have realized that a camera can break the speed of light.

MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of 1 trillion exposures per second. That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion(!) video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle’s bottom.

Media Lab postdoc Andreas Velten, one of the system’s developers, calls it the “ultimate” in slow motion: “There’s nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera,” he says.

Check out the incredible video for more.

MIT Robot Bakes Giant Cookies

Mario Bollini, a graduate student at the Professor Daniela Rus' Distributed Robotics Lab, is working to perfect the baking abilities of a PR2 robot. Currently, the robot can bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch. Another MIT research team is programming the robot to wipe down the table and open the oven door so it can accomplish the entire baking process.

According to an MIT press release, “My task is to have the PR2 bake cookies all the way from locating the ingredients in front of it on the table to putting the cookie in the oven,” Mario Bollini said.

The PR2 laser scans the ingredients on a table and uses a stereo camera to locate the cookie sheet and butter. The other ingredients and equipment are identified by color and size. The PR2 then mixes the ingredients, transfers the dough to a cookie sheet and patting it to form a giant cookie.

MIT Students Build $150 Space Camera, Capture Stunning Views of Earth from Space

Two MIT students built a $150 space camera, launched it into the stratosphere on a helium balloon and captured amazing views of Earth from space.

Oliver Yeh, an MIT senior studying computer science and electrical engineering, and Justin Lee, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, sent the camera up, along with a cell phone with GPS capabilities, from Sturbridge, Mass. They tracked its location through the GPS app and retrieved the camera 20 miles away in Worcester.

Materials:
* A used Canon A470:$40, programmed to take a picture every five seconds.
* A Motorola i290 prepaid cell phone, programmed to constantly report its GPS location via text message.
* A cooler to hold contents
* Newspaper for insulation
* $5 instant hand warmers to keep the instrumentation and batteries from freezing
* A weather balloon filled with helium from a rented tank

Capturing stunning pictures of the blue glow of the Earth against the blackness of space: Priceless!

They posted instructions and details of their project at http://space.1337arts.com.

I'm dying to try this for myself!