Ford thinks exoskeletons are ready for prime time in its factories

People still build cars. While videos of giant robots welding vehicles are exciting to watch (sparks!), humans are an important part of the assembly of vehicles. However, as you would expect, doing the same thing over and over often leads to injuries...

Trouble Building IKEA Furniture? These Robots Can Help!

You already know how things go when you and a friend try to build IKEA furniture. Now you can see how two robots do it. Watch as two ‘off the shelf’ industrial robotic arms put together a Stephan chair. These robots look like they are doing a great job, with no instruction manual in sight.

So, are robots better at assembling IKEA furniture than you are? Apparently, they are.  From planning to execution, it only took 20 minutes, with the actual construction taking only 8 minutes, 55 seconds. They did give the robots some basic instructions in code, telling them that this piece goes first into this other piece, etc.

Then they put the pieces in front of the robots in a random order. They had a hard time with the position of some of the pieces, but it didn’t take them long to figure things out. I guess it won’t be long until IKEA pimps out robots to build the furniture for you after you buy it – for a small fee, of course.

Some humans seem to have a hard time with IKEA furniture, but I’ve never had much of a problem putting this stuff together myself. Maybe I’m part robot.

[via Wired via Geekologie]

Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite gets torn-down, promptly put back together (video)

Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite get's torndown, promptly put back together video

Now that you've been fully acquainted with Amazon's new Kindle Paperwhite, perhaps it's time to get to know it on a deeper level -- and what better than a tear-down to do just that? The folks over at Powerbook Medic took their own unit apart piece by piece on video, highlighting what appears to be a simple process, mostly done by dealing with screws. The trickiest part seems to be pulling off the bezel, as it's held in place with glue. Unfortunately, the repair shop doesn't analyze the e-reader's internal components in the iFixit fashion, but it has gone full-circle and provided a second video on how to put it all back together. Curious to see this Kindle's e-ink-filled guts? You'll find both videos after the break.

Continue reading Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite gets torn-down, promptly put back together (video)

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Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite gets torn-down, promptly put back together (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Oct 2012 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Metalab wires its Blinkenwall to run from Commodore 64, gives no word on the obligatory Tetris port (video)

Metalab wires its Blinkenwall to run from Commodore 64, no word on the obligatory Tetris port video

We've seen some ambitious Blinkenwalls in our time. Nearly all of the attention is unsurprisingly focused on the wall, however, and not on the often clever hardware and software behind it. Vienna's Metalab wants to shift the limelight by kicking it old school. Instead of the thoroughly modern Arduino and Fonera hotspot that normally light up Metalab's 45-block glass wall, the team's Blinken64 project swaps in a Commodore 64 with a cassette drive and the unusual Final Cartridge III feature extender. Getting lights to strobe requires dusting off more than just hardware -- all the animations have to be written in assembly-level MOS Technology 6510 code that even our nerdy parents might forget. The result you'll see in the video after the break is a far cry from the relatively easy, web-accessible hardware that normally powers such blinkenlight creations, but it's also a testament to how relevant classic technology can remain when it's in the right hands.

Continue reading Metalab wires its Blinkenwall to run from Commodore 64, gives no word on the obligatory Tetris port (video)

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Metalab wires its Blinkenwall to run from Commodore 64, gives no word on the obligatory Tetris port (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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