Astrobee from NASA

Astrobee is a free-flying robot system for the International Space Station. Designed and built at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, the system will be used to help scientists and engineers develop and test technologies for use in zero gravity. These robots are designed to assist astronauts in Earth’s orbit and support sustained human exploration to the moon, Mars, or other deep-space destinations.



Next up? Light Saber training with the blast-shield down on your helmet. "Stretch out with your feelings!"

Happy Easter 2019 from R.U.S.

Happy Easter from Robotics Under the Stole! Found this great video from my friends at Parallax -The Egg-Stravagant Egg-Straordinary Egg-Celerator!



And then there is this "slightly" more complicated version from my friend Nikos... EggBotOpenbuilds





And a couple of "over-the-top" examples...

Inflatable Robots - Real LIfe Baymax

With funding from NASA, researchers are exploring how to control inflatable robots for future space missions. Read the whole story by Evan Ackerman here at IEEE Spectrum. Amazing!



See also, Video Friday: Soft Robots, and More at IEEE Spectrum.

Note: RUS's sidebar has an RSS feed for easy access to IEEE Spectrum robotic's news.

National Robotics Week 2019 - Not So Much

What happens when National Robotics Week, April 6-14 2019

occurs during Lent and the week before Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter, April 14-21, 2019 for your average Episcopal Priest and amateur roboticist?

Lots of priesting and no roboting! That's what...

Hope you all got lots more done this week than me!

Testing My Lenten Discipline

Testing my Lenten discipline to minimize "screen time," this arrived late today. I confess - I played a little.

Parallax cyber:bot Robot Kit - with micro:bit

On its way to a local priest, roboticist, and a robotic's blog near you! Expect a full report - till then, read more here - https://www.parallax.com/product/32700 The cyber:bot robot is a joint project of Parallax Inc. (located in Rocklin, California) and NICERC, the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (located right here in Louisiana in Bossier City.

My cyber:bot should arrive on Thursday - Its a long way from Rocklin, California to Monroe, Louisiana (at least for shipping purposes).

There are so many ways my life has California & Louisiana connections!

Thanks to Parallax and Ken Gracey for letting me join in on the fun!

MIT's Mini Cheetah

Earlier this month, MIT posted a video of Mini Cheetah, a small quadruped robot from the lab of Sangbae Kim. Read all about it here on IEEE Spectrum. Incredible!