Robotics Trends

MIT Commissions Peratech Limited to Develop Next Generation Tactile Robotic Skin Peratech’s Quantum Tunnelling Composites technology, composed of electro-active polymeric materials made from metallic or non-metallic filler particles combined in an elastomeric binder, is already employed in NASA’s Robonaut and Shadow Robot’s Shadow Dexterous Hand.  A new research project with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is designed to enable a human to tactically interact with a robot much as they would with another human. Peratech Limited, a developer of new materials designed for touch technology solutions, has announced that they have been commissioned by the MIT Media Lab to develop a new type of electronic ‘skin’ that enables robotic devices to detect not only that they have been touched but also where and how hard the touch was. The key to the sensing technology is Peratech’s patented… View this post
Filed in: Design and Development • Feature • Robotics Features
Tagged: Mit, Quantum tunnelling composites, Qtc, Shadow dexterous hand, Peratech limited, Robonaut, Massachusetts institute of technology

Researchers Demonstrate a Better Way for Computers to ‘See’ Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from MIT and Harvard have harnessed the processing power of dozens of high-performance NVIDIA graphics cards and PlayStation 3s gaming devices to create a high-throughput screening process that teases out the best parameters for visual object recognition tasks. The neural processing involved in visually recognizing even the simplest object in a natural environment is profound---and profoundly difficult to mimic. Neuroscientists have made broad advances in understanding the visual system, but much of the inner workings of biologically-based systems remain a mystery. Using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)—the same technology video game designers use to render life-like graphics – MIT and Harvard researchers are now making progress faster than ever before. “We made a powerful computing system that delivers over hundred… View this post
Filed in: Academics and Research • Feature • Robotics Features
Tagged: Robot, Robotics, Harvard, Artificial visual system, Mit, Graphics processing units