Tag Archives: festo

Festo’s New Soft Robotic Arm Is Powered By Air, Bends Like a Worm

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Check out this amazing new bendy robot arm developed by robotics manufacturer Festo. Somewhere, the Six Million Dollar Man is eyeing his new toy. The BionicSoftArm has pneumatically powered ‘muscles’ and is more flexible and lighter than other robotic arms.

It can be used for a number of applications, thanks to its modular design. With various adaptive grippers, it can pick up and handle a wide variety of objects and shapes. Also, there is zero danger to the user even in the event of a collision. It boasts 7 degrees of freedom, and basically looks like a giant worm. The arm has come a long way from its previous designs as seen in the video.

Watch as this hand-worm grips apples with ease and hands it to a human. Well, drops it in their hand anyway. Watch as it sucks up a bunch of metal marbles and transfers them across the table. But what they didn’t show was it shaking the hand of a human. Probably because in their tests several humans walked away with one less hand. Or should I say ran away screaming as blood gushed everywhere. That’s why you don’t make robots white. They’re hard to clean.

[via Boing Boing via Geekologie]

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Festo BionicFinWave Is a Creepy Robotic Fish

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Biomimicry is the art of making technology and robots that mimic attributes of real-life animals. Festo is all about biomimicry. Take a look at this eel-like robotic fish called BionicFinWave. It swims like a cuttlefish and is mighty creepy to behold. Its fins go from head to tail and the wave-shaped movement of the fins allows the faux-fish to push the water behind it, creating a forward thrust. Creatures with this design can also swim backward in this way. Pretty weird, huh?

BionicFinWave can communicate wirelessly, transmitting sensor data, temperature, pressure, and more to researchers. It operates on the principle of a crankshaft, driven by servo motors, which facilitates the undulating fin movement. The robot is an experiment that allows them to see how this movement could serve as an effective propulsion mechanism.

It is effective alright, and is also eerily life-like. Why did they have to give it those creepy eyes? It already has a camera on the nose. Apparently, they want it to be as life-like as possible, not caring how it creeps out humans like me.

[via Mike Shouts]

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The Octopus Gripper Robot Is Bendy and Mindbendy

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German industrial automation company Festo has another creepy creature to add to its menagerie. The Octopus Gripper. The origin of Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man’s foe, is right here people.

Octopus tentacles are a “muscular hydrostat,” like your tongue. This robotic tentacle is designed to flex and bend without a hard “bone,” or metal, structure inside. In place of water-based muscle, compressed air bends the robot tentacle and controls its pliability. Then passive and vacuum-powered suction cups provide grip. Right now, it can hold smooth, cylindrical items, like a rolled-up magazine or a tube, and I’m sure it will grip many other objects after they work on it some more. Check it out in action:

The octopus tentacle is actually attached to flexible arm called the Bionic Motion Robot, a flexible mechanical arm inspired by the trunk of an elephant. So basically what we have here is a half-elephant, half-octopus hybrid. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s pretty darn creepy. It won’t be long until they unleash a robotic elephant with eight octopus trunks, ready to rip us all apart.

[via Motherboard]

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ICYMI: Ford night riding, AI sphere that delivers and more

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Today on In Case You Missed It: Ford is testing self-driving cars on a completely dark night course, designed to be used without headlights. An automation company built a flying sphere that can pick up and deliver things with a very sphincter-like...

Festo BionicKangaroo: Energizer Joey

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After creating a robot bird and dragonfly, automation company Festo shows off with another impressive animal replica. Like real kangaroos, Festo’s BionicKangaroo is not only great at jumping and keeping its balance, it can also store the energy generated from landing and use it for the next jump.

festo bionic kangaroo 620x355magnify

BionicKangaroo uses a combination of pneumatic actuators and electric servos to move and keep its balance.

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According to Festo, the robot has an rubber elastic spring element that acts like an Achilles tendon: “It is fastened at the back of the foot and parallel to the pneumatic cylinder on the knee joint. The artificial tendon cushions the jump, simultaneously absorbs the kinetic energy and releases it for the next jump.”

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To make the robot even fancier, Festo also made it so it can be controlled with gestures. The company uses the Myo armband to make BionicKangaroo move, stay or rotate in place. Watch BionicKangaroo hip hip hop and not stop:

It would’ve been way cooler if they made a BionicTigger instead. Check out Festo’s report (pdf) if you want to learn more about BionicKangaroo.

[via Ubergizmo]

Bionic Kangaroo with Self-Recharging Legs Can Hop Endlessly

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BionicKangaroo

When creating robots that resemble living beings, engineers go either for a humanoid design or for insects, so this bionic kangaroo might as well be the first of its kind. Its self-recharging legs could in theory help this robo-roo hop forever and ever, till the end of time.

The German group Festo, which is behind this bionic kangaroo, proved that robots don’t have to be evil, since conspiracy theorists are certain of the fact that our metallic companions will break bad someday, in the not-so-distant future. That’s what the group tries to prove, despite admitting that they’ve been working on secret on this project. In this context, maybe it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that the BionicKangaroo (that’s really how this robot is called, so Festo must have lacked imagination in the naming department) could at some point fight for world domination.

Festo’s Dr Heinrich Frontzek pointed out that “With the BionicKangaroo we have precisely reproduced the most characteristic features of natural kangaroos: recuperating and storing energy, and then releasing it once more in the next bound.”

More precisely, the secret of this potential perpetuum mobile is the elastic spring that charges the legs while landing from a jump, fact that helps the BionicKangaroo make the next jump. What prevents this from being a real perpetuum mobile is the fact that a small part of the energy is lost after each jump, making the following ever so inferior.

The group’s Bionic Learning Network equipped the BionicKangaroo with a small storage tank containing high-pressure air needed by the pneumatic muscles for powering the movement. Judging by the motion patterns of this robot, one could say that the engineers who developed it have studied real-life kangaroos for quite some time. After all, this is what it takes when creating a bio-inspired robot.

BionicKangaroo weighs only 15 lb (7kg) and measures just 3ft 3inches (1m), but this doesn’t stop it from hopping 1ft 3inches (40cm) vertically and 2ft 7 inch (0.8 meters) horizontally. The robot recreates the jumps of real kangaroos with great accuracy, its pneumatic pumps acting exactly like organic tendons and muscles.

This definitely represents a great step in the evolution of bio-inspired robots, and it will be worth waiting to see what Festo have in store for us in the future. We only hope that they don’t make such a big secret of their future projects.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the RoboRoach smartphone app that lets you control cockroaches, and the hexapod hexacopter robot.

Festo BionicOpter Robot Dragonfly Makes Quadcopters Look Clumsy

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Automation company Festo loves showing off its technologies and expertise by creating robot versions of animals. We’ve featured the company’s SmartBird before, and you may have also seen its AirPenguin in action. Now the company has released information about its latest pet project, the BionicOpter.

festo bionicopter dragonfly robot

With the BionicOpter, Festo set out to replicate the flying capabilities of the dragonfly. The company says the insect is unique in that it can move in all directions, glide, hover, turn and accelerate quickly and even fly backwards. By replicating how dragonflies use their wings, the BionicOpter ends up being more versatile than a plane, helicopter or glider.

The robot has an aluminum body and carbon fiber wings. It has one external brushless motor and eight motors that handle the movement of its wings. Speaking of which, the robot can orient its wings vertically or horizontally as needed, just like the real deal. The BionicOpter can fly on its own but it can also be controlled remotely. All of that in a machine that weighs only 175g (approx. 0.39lbs.).

If you ask me the best feature of the BionicOpter is that it has a gracefulness to it that I previously thought could only be exhibited by a living creature. Check out Festo’s report (pdf file) if you want to learn more about the robot.

[via Slash Gear]

BionicOpter dragonfly drone flutters about, blows minds

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BionicOpter dragonfly drone flutters about, blows minds

Festo isn't quite the household name that Boston Dynamics is. (And, really, we're not entirely sure Big Dog is a regular topic of conversation at dinner tables yet.) But, it certainly deserves just as much attention for the work they're doing with robotics. After crafting a machine last year that soared around like a herring gull, now the company has created BionicOpter. The 17.3-inch long dragonfly drone can flutter through the air in any direction, and even hover, just like its biological inspiration. Its four carbon fiber and foil wings beat up to 20 times per-second, propelling it through the air as if it were swimming rather than flying. Actually piloting the robo-bug is achieved through a smartphone app, but an on-board ARM-based microcontroller makes small adjustments to ensure stability during flight. There are a few important pieces of information we don't have just yet. For one, it's not clear how long the two-cell lithium ion battery will last, and pricing or availability are missing from the brochure (at the source link). Chances are though, you'll never be able to afford one any way. Thankfully you can at least see this marvel of engineering in action after the break.

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Via: Design Engineering, The Verge

Source: Festo 1 (PDF), 2