Thanks to advancements in technology, there are now robots to complete tasks that we never thought were possible a decade ago. Examples include: lightsaber, lock-cracking, bird-shaped, and Rubik’s Cube-solving robots. Continue reading to see the ten coolest robot technologies.
10. Lightsaber Robots
In case of a real lightsaber duel, be sure to have a Yaskawa Motoman robot ready, should you want to keep your limbs, or life for that matter. No word yet on price or availability.
9. LockCracker
Built by students at the Olin College of Engineering, this clever robot consists of a clamp, which hold the lock in place using a thumb-screw, and a puller, a solenoid-controlled grabber which yanks the loop of the lock to try to open it, and a stepper-motor which actually turns the knob and dials in the combinations.
8. SmartBird
Designed by Festo, the SmartBird is exactly as it sounds, an amazing bionic bird can take-off, fly, and land autonomously. Should you spot one in the sky, you’ll notice that its high-tech wings rival the real thing.
7. Rubik’s Cube Robot
A group of college students at the Swinburne University of Technology have built a robot — called Ruby — that is capable of solving a Rubik’s Cube in less than 11-seconds. Basically, it uses cameras to scan each face of the cube, collects the data, and then runs that information through a custom software algorithm.
6. Quadrocopter Pong
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich call it juggling, but we think these quadrocopters demonstrate what a real-life version of Pong played with robots would look like.
5. Hanako 2 Dental Robot
Going to the dentist for your regular checkups is already something most people would rather pass on, but the super realistic Hanako 2 training robot wants to show that things really aren’t that bad.
4. Festo SmartInversion
Called the Festo SmartInversion, this strange, helium-filled flying machine is unlike any other, because it’s “a six-sided articulated ring of prisms that attaches to a cube, and when it’s unleashed, it can start folding into new geometric shapes; as it turns itself inside out, it moves forward.”
3. da Vinci Surgery Robot
In this amazing video, “Dr. James Porter, medical director of robotic surgery at Swedish folds a small paper airplane with the da Vinci robot to demonstrate how this device gives surgeons greater surgical precision and dexterity over existing approaches.”
2. Robotic Bees
Harvard researchers have created “a method of mass-producing robot insects – creating ‘sheets’ of tiny robot bees that pop up ready for action; when activated, a 2.4 millimetre-tall robot insect ‘pops up’ out of the sheet.”
1. Raytheon’s Heavy Lifter
Have you always wanted a real-life, fully-functional version of the Aliens Powerloader, then look no further than the Raytheon heavy lifter. This robot “could help with rescue operations to quickly clear debris and find survivors.”
Honorable Mention – Robotic Sentry
uilt and programmed by Bob Rudolph, this awesome robotic sentry gun was designed to locate intruders, determine their path, and then fire at them. In other words, “the sentry gun picks up its target using a webcam attached to its tripod, which a laptop translates into movements for the servo motor controlled gun; once the target is in range, it’s blammo from gun pelting you with paintballs or AirSoft pellets.”