The Art of Building a Robot
Sensors and gripper arms can simply be attached and removed as needed. You dont even have to be a specialist to quickly and easily replace a defective part, which makes the robots extremely flexible and economical to operate.
MIT's Modular Robotic Chain Is Whatever You Want It to Be
Evan Ackerman for IEEE Spectrum: As sensors, computers, actuators, and batteries decrease in size and increase in efficiency, it becomes possible to make robots much smaller without sacrificing a whole lot of capability. There’s a lower limit on usefulness, however, if you’re making a robot that needs to interact with humans or human-scale objects. You can continue to leverage shrinking components if you make robots that are modular: in other words, big robots that are made up of lots of little robots.
In some ways, it’s more complicated to do this, because if one robot is complicated, robots tend to be complicated. If you can get all of the communication and coordination figured out, though, a modular system offers tons of advantages: robots that come in any size you want, any configuration you want, and that are exceptionally easy to repair and reconfigure on the fly.
MIT’s ChainFORM is an interesting take on this idea: it’s an evolution of last year’s LineFORM multifunctional snake robot that introduces modularity to the system, letting you tear of a strip of exactly how much robot you need, and then reconfigure it to do all kinds of things. Cont'd...
RENCO Modular Rotary Encoders Ideal for Mobile Robots
The RENCO encoders slim and lightweight design allows motor designers more flexibility, especially in these applications where space and weight is critical.
Echoing Government's Productivity 4.0, IoT Automation Boosts Taiwan's Competitiveness
Facing challenges of labor shortages and aging labor forces, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs is implementing "Productivity 4.0" to stimulate economic growth and upgrade industries.
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OnLogic Helix 401 Fanless Hybrid-Core Computer
OnLogic's Helix 401 Compact Fanless Computer offers scalable, high-performance processing and can simultaneously drive multiple 4K displays, making it the ideal computing platform for many automation and IIoT applications. The Helix 401 has the horsepower to drive mission-critical applications while requiring less than 28W of power, and is small enough to fit in space-constrained locations or enclosures. It can be configured with a range of Intel® 12th generation processors, up to a Core i7 and has Intel Iris® Xe graphics onboard.