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Robot Battery Exchange Station — Parallax Forums

Robot Battery Exchange Station

WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
edited 2010-07-09 23:23 in Robotics
Hey All,

Here is a neat video of a Robot Battery Exchange Station. This comes via BotJunkie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEeLjeJslH4&feature=player_embedded

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Whit+


"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

Comments

  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2010-07-09 02:49
    So Whit it looks like you have won this round of finding neat robot videos. That site has videos of three beer fetching robots: Baxter, PR2, and Dynamaid!
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2010-07-09 16:42
    Neato! Except the battery station does more than the robot!

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2010-07-09 17:50
    erco said...
    Neato! Except the battery station does more than the robot!

    LOL!

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    Whit+


    "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
  • hover1hover1 Posts: 1,929
    edited 2010-07-09 18:15
    No doubt!
    erco said...
    Neato! Except the battery station does more than the robot!
  • SeariderSearider Posts: 290
    edited 2010-07-09 19:28
    This is pretty cool. A battery pack vending machine for robots.
    Now, if we can get some international standards and have these scattered around the city ...

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    Searider
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2010-07-09 19:56
    Most everyone has experienced the joy of hunting for a Roomba that died under the sofa and never made it back to its recharger. Straying far from the charger is dangerous for robots! In the movie I, Robot, there were robot cleanup crews that came out after a car crash. (All the cars were supposed to be driven by perfect, infallible robots, but that's a different arguement.) The idea of a mobile tender vehicle to maintenance & service a fleet or swarm of smaller robots is quite interesting. Specifically, if this overcomplicated battery-swapping device was mobile and could locate dead robots and get 'em going, it'd be better-er.

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-07-09 20:05
    WARNING: The video could be painful to watch by those with a tendency toward anthropomorphization when it comes to robots! smile.gif

    I'm actually more intrigued by the clear cylinder with the reflective cone at the top. According to what I can gather from their website, it's some sort of omni-directional camera.

    -Phil
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    edited 2010-07-09 23:23
    That is really slick. I have always thought that this would be the method of making electric vehicles better for long drives. Pull into a "recharge" station to swap the battery pack.

    I have seen that method of an omni-directional camera about 10 years ago but it didn't work real well due to the complexity of the software needed to accurately determine positions of items seen in the mirror. I am sure it's much easier to handle nowadays. Beautifully simple concept though: camera looks up at a cone shaped mirror so that it has a 360 degree view yet it never moves.

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    Andrew Williams
    WBA Consulting
    PowerTwig Dual Output Power Supply Module
    My Prop projects: Reverse Geo-Cache Box, Custom Metronome, Micro Plunge Logger
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