Humanoid Swimbot Introduced
Aquatic robots tend to be patterned after fish and other
entities that are inherently good at swimming, but researchers
at the Tokyo Institute of Technology ( www.titech.ac.jp) have
bucked the trend and built what they say is the first humanoid
robot that can swim underwater using all four limbs.
"Swumanoid" is a 12 lb, three ft tall half-scale version of a former
Japanese Olympic swimmer who apparently wants to remain
anonymous. The aquabot's mission is to figure out how to create
the least amount of drag while swimming, thus potentially
teaching us how to do a better job of it. For example, the
researchers will study how pulling its arms straight through the water compares with using a zig-zag pattern. Although powered
by 20 motors, Swumanoid plods along at a measly 0.64 m/s ( 2.1 fps), compared to Nathan Adrian's 2.1 m/s ( 6.9 fps) in the
summer Olympics 100 m freestyle. Its creator says that Swumanoid 2.0 — due sometime next year — will improve upon that.
Tokyo Tech's "Swumanoid" (not ready for the Olympics).
Robotic Architectural Printer
We had to view this item with a bit of skepticism, especially given that the documentation includes some obvious
Photoshop concoctions. According to the website of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia ( www.iaac.net),
it's for real. Building on the concept of 3D printing, some students came up with the idea of building architectural
structures by spraying a mixture of dirt and a liquid binder to create a variety of solid forms and shapes. Moreover, the
"Stone Spray" process is carried out by robots, can be powered entirely with solar energy, and employs nontoxic
PolyPavement ( www.polypavement.com) as the binder.
It's a little early to think about spraying yourself a new
beach bungalow, though, as the process seems to still have
a few bugs in it (perhaps literally). For example, the "stool"
shown in the photo required an internal wire skeleton, and
it took four hours to create and solidify it, even though it
measures only 200 mm in all dimensions. Such a structure
is said to be "structurally strong and can support not only
itself but even bear a load," but how much of a load is still
in question. Still, it's an interesting concept.
"Stool" created from beach sand and wire using the
Stone Spray process.
Art Imitates Imitation Life
Finally, as we have observed upon occasion, whenever you mix art,
robotics, and public funding, strange things can happen. In this case, it is
a sculpture by Czech artist David Cerny, consisting of a six ton, 1957
double-decker bus that does push-ups. Also featured are video projections
in the windows and recorded groaning sounds. The work of art was
created as a tribute to the London Olympic games and is located outside
of the Czech Olympic House (which usually havens the Business Design
Center) in London. Explaining the point of the artwork, the artist noted
that the push-up "is training for sport activities but at the same time it is
also punishment in armies and prisons. So, the push-ups are a very
universal physical activity ... It is in a way very ironic." Now don't you feel
Previous Cerny creations include an object depicting Bulgaria as a
squat toilet, a statue of Saddam Hussein floating in formaldehyde, and a
display encouraging people to kill each other to control population
"London Boosted," a piece of robotic art
by David Cerny.
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