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Mars Base

An Autonomous, Self-Steering Robo-Cane, And Other Co-Robots to Come | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...-cane-and-other-co-robots-come

scibyte107 MedicalDevice

shared by Mars Base on 26 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • National Robotics Initiative, a federal program that aims to push the development of co-robots, or bots that work alongside—and occasionally inside—humans
  • NRI is a panoply of loosely-related ideas, few of which are photogenic
  • But this research is worth a closer look
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • the bots that could become part of our lives, in our own lifetimes, won’t look like Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, or NASA’s (and GM’s) Robonaut 2. Chances are, they’ll look a lot more like a walking stick, with a bunch of stuff bolted onto it.
  • a navigation-aid,
  • the robotic cane being developed by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock acts as a kind of seeing-eye walking stick
  • It maps the user’s path with a vision and 3D camera, and picks out stairways, low overhangs, and other features of interest to the visually-impaired
  • the bot will be able to verbally warn or guide the operator, speaking through a Bluetooth earpiece (and possibly through tactile feedback), it will also be able to perform limited steering maneuvers
  • . “In navaid mode, the device's roller tip is activated, and may drive the cane and point it towards the desired direction of travel
  • The six-degree-of-freedom roller isn’t driving the operator, but making suggestions, and can be toggled on and off by switching between navaid and white cane modes
  • robots designed by companies like iRobot can already drive themselves around indoors with a minimum of collisions
  • problems of obstacle detection and avoidance are far from licked
  • The margin of failure for a robot cane has to be vanishingly small, and that level of accuracy could also benefit systems that aren’t attached to humans
  • the co-robotic cane was co-funded for a three-year period by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the National Eye Institute (NEI), both of which are part of NIH
  • One of the new projects funded by NSF is an effort to make robots that can better read the emotional needs of Parkinson’s sufferers, specifically those whose faces have been significantly paralyzed
  • In order to serve as mediators between victims of “facial masking” and their caregivers
  • the project aims to “develop a robotic architecture endowed with moral emotional control mechanisms, abstract moral reasoning, and a theory of mind that allow corobots to be sensitive to human affective and ethical demands
  • whether it will be an existing system, or a new one
  • is unclear
  • one of the project’s collaborators is
  • the famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) roboticist who proposed the use of so-called “ethical governors” for autonomous military robots
Mars Base

Uncanny Valley robots essay resurfaces 42 years later - 0 views

phys.org/...y-robots-essay-resurfaces.html

scibyte51 robot

shared by Mars Base on 14 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • An essay on robots by a professor in Japan over 40 years ago has just got its official translation
  • An English translation was done in 2005 but the translation that has been authorized and and reviewed by Mori was published Tuesday in IEEE Spectrum.
  • accompanied by an interview with Mori, who can look at the validity of his remarks 42 years later, when robotics has gone through so many developments
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • counterpoint to the popularity of Mori’s essay has been the contention that the essay was an essay, after all, of limited scientific value.
  • observation from his original essay is what sparked conversations and interest among robotic designers
  • Mori maintains that humans are drawn to human-like robots with positive feelings of affinity until the robot moves or reveals itself in such a way that triggers the person’s realization that it is not human. Then it becomes “uncanny” or in popular-culture terms, creepy
  • Mori said that pointing out the existence of the uncanny valley was intended as advice for people who design robots rather than a scientific statement itself.
Mars Base

Japanese researchers build robot with most humanlike muscle-skeleton structure yet (w/ ... - 0 views

phys.org/...ike-muscle-skeleton-video.html

scibyte75 robot

shared by Mars Base on 12 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Called Kenshiro, the robot has been demonstrated at the recent Humanoids 2012 conference in Osaka, Japan
  • previous effort resulted in a robot they called Kojiro
  • Kenshiro was preceded by a robot concept the team called Kenzoh
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • the team found that simply adding artificial muscle and bones generally tended to create weight problems
  • upper body alone came to 45 kg
  • with the idea of mimicking human bone and muscle at the individual body part level, i.e. a backbone, calf, or knee joint
  • Each part was custom designed to fall within the weight parameters of actual human limbs and other parts of the body.
  • a robot sized to approximate the average 12 year old Japanese boy
  • bones made of aluminum
  • connected together
  • the way human bones are connected
  • artificial ligaments
  • and a collection of muscles that mimic very closely those in the human body
  • Kenshiro has 160 muscles that are constructed using a single actuator motor for individual muscle groups
  • appears to be a collection of parts cobbled together to form a single whole
  • The robot can walk, but just barely
  • can do deep knee bends, but the rest of the body seems out of sync
Mars Base

NASA's Robot Glove Lends a Cyborg Hand to Astronauts | NASA Robo-Glove | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/t-glove-astronaut-cyborgs.html

scibyte38 nasa robot cyborg

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • NASA and General Motors have come up with a robotic glove capable of giving today's astronauts and factory workers an extra-strong cyborg grip
  • Robo-Glove" technology emerged when NASA and General Motors (GM) built "Robonaut 2" as a robot assistant for astronauts living aboard the space station
  • glove's mechanical strength allows human wearers to grip tools longer and more comfortably
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • astronaut working in a bulky, pressurized spacesuit might only need to use 10 pounds of force rather than 20 pounds to hold a tool in his or her hand.
  • e robot gloves could also help factory workers on Earth do their job for longer periods with less risk of repetitive stress injury,
  • Such gloves rely upon a robotic sense of touch — pressure sensors in the fingertips — to detect when a human user is grabbing an object
  • wearer grasps a tool, synthetic tendons automatically retract for a firm, mechanical grip until the sensor is released
  • most recent prototypes weigh just two pounds and use an off-the-shelf lithium-ion power tool battery attached to the human user's belt
  • e K-Glove (Robo-Glove) is the first of what we expect to be many spinoffs derived from Robonaut 2
Mars Base

Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot (w/ video) - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ocean-powered-robot-video.html

scibyte39 robot MarMedia

shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • American researchers have created a robotic jellyfish, named Robojelly, which not only exhibits characteristics ideal to use in underwater search and rescue operations, but could, theoretically at least, never run out of energy thanks to it being fuelled by hydrogen.
  • Constructed from a set of smart materials
  • ability to change shape or size as a result of a stimulus, and carbon nanotubes, Robojelly is able to mimic the natural movements of a jellyfish when placed in a water tank and is powered by chemical reactions taking place on its surface.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • To our knowledge, this is the first successful powering of an underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source
  • jellyfish is an ideal invertebrate to base the vehicle on due to its simple swimming action
  • replicated in the vehicle using commercially-available shape memory alloys (SMA) – smart materials that "remember" their original shape – wrapped in carbon nanotubes and coated with a platinum black powder.
  • powered by heat-producing chemical reactions between the oxygen and hydrogen in water and the platinum on its surface
  • renewable element means Robojelly can regenerate fuel from its natural surroundings and therefore doesn't require an external power source or the constant replacement of batteries.
  • heat given off by these reactions is transferred to the artificial muscles of the robot, causing them to transform into different shapes.
  • robot still needs development to achieve full functionality and efficiency
Mars Base

Soft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...us-robot-inches-earthworm.html

robot GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 11 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • made almost entirely of soft materials, is remarkably resilient: Even when stepped upon or bludgeoned with a hammer, the robot is able to inch away
  • Earthworms creep along the ground by alternately squeezing and stretching muscles along the length of their bodies, inching forward with each wave of contractions
  • robot is named "Meshworm" for the flexible, meshlike tube that makes up its body
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • created "artificial muscle" from wire made of nickel and titanium — a shape-memory alloy that stretches and contracts with heat
  • the wire around the tube
  • creating segments along its length, much like the segments of an earthworm
  • the group subjected the robot to multiple blows with a hammer, even stepping on the robot to check its durability. Despite the violent impacts, the robot survived
Mars Base

Robot snake automatically wraps around an object when thrown (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...utomatically-thrown-video.html

scibyte87 robot

shared by Mars Base on 23 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Robot snakes have been developed in recent years to mimic the actions of their real life counterparts
  • researchers have developed such snakes that are able to travel over terrain in ways very similar to a real snake, and even to climb up objects such as a person's arm.
  • researchers have extended the capability of a robot snake to include wrapping and holding on to an object when thrown at it
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • researchers were able to give the snake such an ability by making use of accelerometers embedded in its body
  • It's able to detect the sudden stop that occurs when it strikes an object
  • taking advantage of programming that had already been done by the team to get it to wrap itself around the object that it had struck
  • there is a difference between wrapping and constricting
  • this robot snake does the former, but not the latter
  • it doesn't squeeze the target, it simply wraps itself around it to allow it to hold on
Mars Base

Self-Propelled Floating Robot Navigates an Arizona Lake | Space Exploration | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ot-navigates-arizona-lake.html

scibyte39 robot MarMedia

shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • floating robot made to land on a lake, propel itself around and gather data about the water and atmosphere as it goes
  • built it for future lake-landing missions to one of Saturn's moons, Titan.
  • could also be used for science and military missions on Earth,
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • weighs about 100 pounds,
  • In the video, the robot turns some circles and navigates on the lake's surface.
  • can carry 150 pounds' worth of sensing equipment
  • can be controlled from anywhere around the world using an Internet connection
  • working on making the craft more autonomous
  • wants to create data-gathering robots that have a sense of curiosity
  • investigate certain places, learn from what they find and use that information to decide what to explore next. 
  • an improved version
  • could help officials survey the cleanup of dangerously polluted water in munitions dumps and mines
  • also could help ocean scientists gather data about currents and pollution.
  • For a mission to Titan
  • NASA is interested in rovers that can land on liquid rather than on solid ground
Mars Base

British researchers create robot that can learn simple words by conversing with humans ... - 0 views

phys.org/...t-simple-words-conversing.html

scibyte51 robot

shared by Mars Base on 17 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • In an attempt to replicate the early experiences of infants, researchers in England have created a robot that can learn simple words in minutes just by having a conversation with a human.
  • three-foot-tall robot, named DeeChee, was built to produce any syllable in the English language. But it knew no words at the outset of the study, speaking only babble phrases like "een rain rain mahdl kross."
  • human volunteer attempted to teach the robot simple words for shapes and colors by using them repeatedly in regular speech.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • At first, all DeeChee could comprehend was an unsegmented stream of sounds
  • had been programmed to break up that stream into individual syllables and to store them in its memory
  • words were ranked according to how often they came up in conversation
  • words like "red" and "green" were prized.
  • designed to recognize words of encouragement, like "good" and "well done,"
  • That feedback helped transform the robot's babble into coherent words, sometimes in as little as two minutes.
  • repetition of sounds helps infants learn a language, then it's not surprising that our first words are often mainstays like "mama" and "dada."
  • words that form the connective tissue of our language - words like "at," "with" and "of" - are spoken in hundreds of different ways, making them difficult for newbies to recognize
  • more concrete words like "house" or "blue" tend to be spoken in the same way nearly every time
  • study relied on the human volunteers speaking naturally
  • DeeChee was programmed to smile when it was ready to pay attention to its teacher and to stop smiling and blink when it needed a break
  • designed to have a gender-neutral appearance, humans tended to treat it as a boy
Mars Base

SkySweeper robot makes inspecting power lines simple and inexpensive (w/ video) - 0 views

phys.org/...-robot-power-lines-simple.html

scibyte91 SkySweeper

shared by Mars Base on 18 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Mechanical engineers at the University of California
  • invented a robot designed to scoot along utility lines, searching for damage and other problems that require repairs.
  • the SkySweeper prototype could be scaled up for less than $1,000, making it significantly more economical than the two models of robots currently used to inspect power lines
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer
  • Current line inspection robots are large, complex, and expensive
  • Utility companies may also use manned or unmanned helicopters equipped with infrared imaging to inspect lines
  • SkySweeper could be outfitted with induction coils that would harvest energy from the power line itself, making it possible for the robot to stay deployed for weeks or months at a time
  • strengthening the clamps so they can release from the rope and swing down the line, one end to the other, thereby swinging past cable support points
Mars Base

Curiosity's Robotic Arm Camera Snaps 1st Night Images - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-camera-snaps-1st-night-images

scibyte79 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 25 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • This image of a Martian rock illuminated by white-light LEDs (light emitting diodes) is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity
  • image was taken on Jan. 22, 2013, after dark on Sol 165. It covers an area about 1.3 inches by 1 inch (3.4 by 2.5 centimeters
  • The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera is located on the tool turret at the end of Curiosity’s 7 foot (2.1 m) long robotic arm
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Curiosity’s high resolution robotic arm camera has just snapped the 1st set of night time images of a Martian rock of the now 5 1/2 month long mission – using illumination from ultraviolet and white light emitting LED’s.
  • the close-up images of a rock target named “Sayunei” on Jan. 22 (Sol 165), located near the front-left wheel after the rover had driven over and scuffed the area to break up rocks in an effort to try and expose fresh material, free of obscuring dust
  • image of a Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet LEDs
  • is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the MAHLI camera on the robotic arm.
  • It covers an area about 1.3 inches by 1 inch (3.4 by 2.5 centimeters).
  • The purpose of acquiring observations under ultraviolet illumination was to look for fluorescent minerals
  • If something looked green, yellow, orange or red under the ultraviolet illumination, that’d be a more clear-cut indicator of fluorescence
Mars Base

Could the Next Planetary Rover Come from Canada? - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...anetary-rover-come-from-canada

scibyte70 rover

shared by Mars Base on 29 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Canadian Space Agency is well known for its robotics but they’ve recently expanded from robotic arms to building prototypes for five new rovers, designed for future lunar and Mars missions
  • range from microrovers to full-sized science missions and range in size from 30 kg up to 900 kg.
  • the Lunar Exploration Light Rover, is designed to carry a scientific payload and can be fitted with a robotic arm. It has a range of 15 km, can be operated remotely, or can be used to carry astronauts across a planetary surface.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • two Micro-Rover prototypes, at 40 kg and 30 kg., are designed to be operated in conjunction with larger rovers, and can be tethered to them and lowered into otherwise inaccessible areas.
  • On the Moon, permanently shadowed craters provide many interesting areas to find water and other volatiles
  • craters have steep slopes making it difficult and risky for a large rover
  • sending a micro-rover tethered to its mother one gives us the ability to explore the bottom of these craters with a minimum risk.
  • they are very slow so it is more efficient to have them on a larger rover to cover long distance and deploy them when needed.
  • The micro-rovers can also be used to work alongside astronauts, to gain access to small spaces like caves
  • e rovers should be mission-ready by about 2020, and NASA is already interested.
  • designs are intended to fit in with those types of activities.
  • NASA has an experiment under consideration that entails digging up soil on the Moon and making hydrogen and oxygen out of it
  • Canadarm was a fixture on the Space Shuttles and made it possible to do things like deploying satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope
  • instrumental in building the International Space Station
  • CSA also built the huge Canadarm 2 and Dextre, the highly dexterous dual-armed robot, both of which reside on the International Space Station
  • CSA contributed a robotic arm and other equipment to Curiosity
  • e CSA doesn’t anticipate any other rover designs, these 5 prototypes could be focused “on more specific applications such as in-situ resource utilization or science,
Mars Base

Robotic Rehab Helps Paralyzed Rats Walk Again - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...tic-rehab-helps-paralyzed.html

scibyte49 MedicalTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • employing a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation, and robot-assisted rehabilitation, researchers have restored a remarkable degree of voluntary movement in rats paralyzed by a spinal cord injury
  • After several weeks of treatment, the rodents were able to walk—with some assistance—to retrieve a piece of food, even going up stairs or climbing over a small barrier to get it
  • Spinal injuries cause paralysis because they sever or crush nerve fibers that connect the brain to neurons in the spinal cord that move muscles throughout the body
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • These fibers, or axons, are the long extensions that convey signals from one end of a neuron to another, and unfortunately, they don't regrow in adults
  • Restoring axons' ability to regrow using growth factors, stem cells, or other therapies has been a longstanding—but frustratingly elusive—goal for researchers.
  • Most spinal injuries in people do not sever the spinal cord completely
  • To approximate this situation in rats, his team made two surgical cuts in the spinal cord, severing all of the direct connections from the brain, but leaving some tissue intact in between the cuts
  • had the rodents begin a rehab regime intended to bypass the fractured freeway, as it were, by pushing more traffic onto neural back roads and building more of them
  • This regime, which began about a week after the rats were injured, lasted about 30 minutes a day
  • During each session, the researchers injected the animals with a cocktail of drugs to improve the function of rats' neural circuits in the part of the spinal cord involved in leg movements
  • stimulated this area with electrodes
  • With its spinal cord thus primed for action, a rat was fitted into a harness attached to a robotic device that supported its weight and allowed it to walk forward on its hind legs to the extent that it was able
  • At first, the rats could not move their legs at all, let alone walk.
  • after 2 or 3 weeks, the rodents began taking steps toward a piece of food after a gentle nudge from the robo
  • By 5 or 6 weeks, they were able to initiate movement on their own and walk to get the food
  • after a few additional weeks of intensified rehab, they were able to walk up rat-sized stairs and climb over a small barrier placed in their path
  • did not undergo rehab, in contrast, showed no improvement at all
  • Rats suspended over a moving treadmill that elicited reflex-like stepping movement
  • full recovery depends on making intentional movements, not just any movement
  • Additional experiments in the paper make a compelling case that the rats' recovery is due to new neural connections forming to create a detour around the injury
  • s work suggests that all three components of the rehab strategy—the drugs, the electrical stimulation, and the robot-assisted physical therapy
  • case study published last year reported some recovery of voluntary movements in a man paralyzed in a vehicle accident, after he underwent a combination of electrical stimulation and physical therap
  • two more patients are undergoing similar rehab now, and his group hopes to add drug therapy to enhance nerve repair in the future
  • the strategy's limitations. For one thing, it wouldn't work if the spinal cord were completely severed
  • treated rats could only make voluntary movements while the electrical stimulation was turned on, and the same was mostly true of the patient Edgerton and colleagues worked with. "This is not a cure for spinal cord injury," Courtine says. "It's a promising proof of principle."
Mars Base

Video: Cheetah Robot Sets a New Land Speed Record | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...bot-sets-new-land-speed-record

scibyte62 BosonDynamics

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Boston Dynamics' Cheetah
  • fastest a robot had ever run
  • was coursing along at 18 miles per hour
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • that up to a frightening 28.3 MPH.
  • Usain Bolt's peak speed during the 100-meter dash was 27.78 MPH
  • Cheetah, for now, is tethered to an external power supply, and runs on an indoor treadmill.
  • Next year, however, Boston Dynamics plans to unleash Wildcat (pictured above), a Cheetah that's designed to run untethered.
Mars Base

Space Exploration By Robot Swarm - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ace-exploration-by-robot-swarm

scibyte47 robot space exploration AsteroidMining

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • one researcher from Stanford University is suggesting we unleash a swarm of rover/spacecraft hybrids that can explore en masse.
  • been developing a concept under NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program that would see small spherical robots deployed to small worlds, such as Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos, where they would take advantage of low gravity to explore — literally —  in leaps and bounds.
  • similar to what NASA has done in the past with the Mars rovers, except multiplied in the number of spacecraft (and reduced in cost.)
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • were one spacecraft to fail the entire mission wouldn’t be compromised
  • robots would be deployed from a “mother” spacecraft and spring into action upon landing, tumbling
  • hybrid rovers could also help prepare for future, more in-depth exploration.
  • exploration of small bodies would help unravel the origin of the solar system and its early evolution
  • evaluate the resource potential of small bodies in view of future human missions beyond Earth.”
Mars Base

Demo of mind-controlled exoskeleton planned for World Cup - 0 views

phys.org/...led-exoskeleton-world-cup.html

scibyte130

shared by Mars Base on 11 May 14 - No Cached
  • The World Cup opening ceremony
  • June 12
  • a standout for athletes and their fans but yet another eye-opener may make the Sao Paulo stadium opener long remembered globally
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • a mind-controlled exoskeleton designed to enable a paralyzed person to walk is to make its debut.
  • BBC report provided the latest developments in the robotic suit. "If all goes as planned," wrote Alejandra Martins, "the robotic suit will spring to life in front of almost 70,000 spectators and a global audience of billions of people."
  • The exoskeleton was developed by an international team of scientists, part of the Walk Again Project, and described by the BBC report as a "culmination" of over 10 years of work
  • The goal is to show the brain-controlled exoskeleton during the opening ceremony of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
  • The (DiVE) website talks about the day when "the first ceremonial kick in the World Cup game may be made "by a paralyzed teenager, who, flanked by the two contending soccer teams, will saunter onto the pitch clad in a robotic body suit."
  • According to the BBC, since November, Nicolelis has been training eight patients at a lab in Sao Paulo, amidst "media speculation that one of them will stand up from his or her wheelchair and deliver the first kick of this year's World Cup.")
  • the exoskeleton is being controlled by brain activity and it is relaying feedback signals to the patient.
  • The patient wears a cap which picks up brain signals and relays them to a computer in the backpack, decoding the signals and sending them to the legs.
  • A battery in the backpack allows for around two hours' use. The robotic suit is powered by hydraulics.
  • Many different companies helped to build the skeleton's components
  • they used a lot of 3-D printing technology for purposes of both speed and achieving strong but light materials, along with using standard aluminum parts
  • "When the foot of the exoskeleton touches the ground there is pressure, so the sensor senses the pressure and before the foot touches the ground we are also doing pre-contact sensing. It's a new way of doing skin sensing for robots," Cheng
  • Dr Gordon Cheng, at the Technical University of Munich
  • Duke University in November announced that in a study led by Duke researchers, monkeys learned to control the movement of both arms on an avatar using just their brain activity.
Mars Base

What an unmanned aerial vehicle can do with depth perception - 0 views

phys.org/...-vehicle-depth-perception.html

scibyte75 Darpa

shared by Mars Base on 17 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • This UAV is capable of both hover and wing-borne flight, making the delivery and precision emplacement of a payload possible
  • A special robotic arm was designed with the capability of carrying up to 1 pound.
  • developed a low-cost vision system to estimate the target's position relative to the hovering vehicle in real time
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • vision system enables the UAV to search and find the target for the emplacement autonomously and then perform the action
  • Our goal
  • was to show we could quickly develop and integrate the right technology to make this work
  • this technology
  • successfully demonstrated
  • A newly developed stereo vision system that tracks the emplacement target and motion of the robotic arm.
  • The vision system, coupled with global positioning system, controls the arm and V-Bat during emplacement.
  • Control logic to maneuver the vehicle and direct the robotic arm to accurately engage the emplacement target.
  • Vehicle stability with the arm extended 6 feet with a 1-pound payload.
  • Autonomous search and detection of the emplacement target and autonomously emplaced a 1-pound payload
Mars Base

SpaceX's First Mission to the Space Station: How It Will Work | Dragon COTS 2/3 Flight ... - 0 views

www.space.com/agon-space-station-flight.html

scibyte47 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule is due to deliver food, supplies and science experiments
  • SpaceX is one of two companies with NASA contracts for robotic cargo delivery flights (Virginia's Orbital Technologies Corp. is the other), but is the first to actually try a launch
  • Here's how the robotic mission is expected to play out:
  • ...50 more annotations...
  • Step 1: Launch
  • from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX has use of the facility's Space Launch Complex 40
  • The initial ascent is powered by Falcon 9's first stage, consisting of nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines
  • Step 2: Main Engine Cut Off/Stage Separation
  • At a little before 180 seconds into the flight, the Falcon 9's first stage engines will cut off, and the first stage will drop off, falling back to Earth
  • the booster's second stage engines should start, further propelling the vehicle into orbit.
  • Step 3: Payload Separation
  • Around 9 minutes into the flight, the Dragon capsule should separate from Falcon 9's second stage and orbit on its own
  • capsule will deploy its solar arrays to start soaking up energy from the sun
  • Dragon is on its own and must maneuver using its onboard thrusters
  • Step 4: Orbital Checkouts
  • Dragon will begin a series of checkouts to make sure it's functioning as designed and ready to meet up with the station
  • test out its abort system to prove it can terminate its activities and move away from the space station if something goes wrong.
  • demonstrate its performance in free drift phase, with thrusters inhibited
  • Teams on the ground will lead the vehicle through tests of
  • Absolute GPS (AGPS) system, which uses global positioning system satellites to determine its location in space
  • Step 5: Fly-Under
  • fire its thrusters to perform a fly-under of the International Space Station
  • to 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) below the outpost
  • make radio contact with the station using a system called the COTS Ultra?high frequency Communication Unit to communicate.
  • Dragon will also test a secondary locator system called the relative GPS system, which uses the spacecraft's position relative to the space station to establish its coordinates
  • the six-person crew inside the orbiting laboratory will be monitoring their new visitor
  • use a crew command panel onboard the station to communicate with the capsule and send it a command to turn on a strobe light.
  • After completing the fly-under, Dragon will loop out in front, above and then behind the space station to position itself for docking.
  • Step 6: Rendezvous
  • during Dragon's fourth day of flight, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters again to bring it within 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) of the space station
  • there, NASA's Mission Control team in Houston will run through a "go-no go" call to confirm all teams are ready for rendezvous
  • If everyone is "go," Dragon will inch closer, to about 820 feet (250 meters) away from the space station.
  • series of final checkouts will be performed to make sure all of Dragon's location and navigation systems are accurate
  • If all looks good, Dragon's SpaceX control team on the ground will command the vehicle to approach the space station
  • When it reaches 720 feet (220 meters), the astronauts onboard the outpost will command the capsule to halt.
  • After another series of "go-no go" checks
  • approach to 656 feet (200 meters), and then 98 feet (30 meters), and finally 32 feet (10 meters), the capture point.
  • Step 7: Docking
  • Mission Control will tell the space station crew they are "go" for capturing Dragon
  • astronaut Don Pettit will use the station's robotic arm to reach out and grab Dragon, pulling it in to the bottom side of the lab's Harmony node, and then attaching it.
  • The next day, after more checkouts, the crew will open the hatch between Dragon and the station.
  • Over the coming weeks, the astronauts will spend about 25 hours unpacking the 1,014 pounds (460 kilograms) of cargo that Dragon delivers
  • none of the cargo is critical (since this is a test flight),
  • capsule will arrive bearing food, water, clothing and supplies for the crew.
  • Step 8: Undocking
  • Dragon is due to spend about 18 days docked at the International Space Station.
  • the station astronauts will use the robotic arm to maneuver the capsule out to about 33 feet (10 meters) away, then release it. Dragon will then use its thrusters to fly a safe distance away from the laboratory.
  • Step 9: Re-entry
  • About four hours after departing the space station, Dragon will fire its engines to make what's called a de-orbit burn
  • will set the capsule on a course for re-entry through Earth's atmosphere
  • spacecraft is equipped with a heat shield to protect it from the fiery temperatures of its 7-minute re-entry flight.
  • Step 10: Landing
  • due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean to end its mission
  • There, recovery crews will be waiting to collect the capsule about 250 miles (450 kilometers) off the West Coast of the United States
  • Mars Base on 21 May 12
     
    Mission Overview
Mars Base

'Walking robot' allows paralyzed man to move again | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...ws-paralyzed-man-to-move-again

scibyte77

shared by Mars Base on 28 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Developed by the military to allow soldiers to carry heavy weights long distances, then adapted to use with paralyzed patients, this real life "Iron Man" uses two lithium batteries, motors, computer chips and a hand-operated console.
  • available at 30 hospitals around the country so far
  • Researchers at Vanderbilt University have developed the lightest model, under 30 pounds, and expect the uses and benefits of the exoskeleton to extend to patients with stroke and many other neurological conditions.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • I began to sleep better at night
  • spasms are decreased
  • better bladder control
  • the exoskeleton is good for the skin, muscles, bones, circulation, and it decreases the risk of blood clots and wounds
  • In the absence of a cure
  • using technological devices to help them to gain mobility and to be able to better care for themselves
  • this electrically powered robot where they actually can go distances without exhausting themselves
  • one downside, and that's the cost, which is up to $140,000 for a single unit
  • as more and more patients use it and the technology is simplified, the cost is expected to come down.
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