Robotica Exotica

PRT makes Forbes

As the three of you who actually follow this blog know, I have a project building a personal rapid transit (PRT) simulator that can be used to asses both the energy costs as well as the economic return for such a system.

As a society, I believe that we need to address the issue of transportation efficiency (both in terms of fuel and time), and that PRT is an elegant technological solution to both problems. It is forward thinking, and definitely not within the mainstream discussion of the problem.

Forbes magazine has a nice article on future transportation that includes PRT in the mix:

Indeed, 2007 marked the first time that a majority of the world's 6 billion people were living in urban areas. By 2025, 61% of the world's population will be living in cities of 1 million or more. The Urban Age Institute forecasts 27 "mega-cities"--those with 10 million or more people--by 2015. Eighteen of them, it says, will be in Asia.

To deal with the challenge, automakers are dreaming up all kinds of high-tech solutions. GM's Burns envisions a world where autonomous electric cars talk to one another and thus avoid crashing. With an assigned time and path, these lightweight, self-guided cars would proceed steadily through crowded intersections without all the stop-and-go that chokes roadways and saps fuel efficiency. Many of the enabling technologies, such as adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning systems, already exist.

Or imagine commuting in a lightweight, computer-driven podcar that rides on elevated guideways that extend into every neighborhood in the city. Bill N. Reinert, national manager for Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people )'s advanced technology group, suggests that an on-demand, personal rapid transit system might be just as effective and no more costly than self-guided cars. Riders would reserve a vehicle on a phone and the car would be waiting at a nearby station (rather than the other way around).

The Roboat

There are a few groups working on the micro Transat project to make a small sailboat sail across the Atlantic autonomously. The team that won the first competition, Roboat has recently made the news with a bunch of articles.

From GizMag

Few types of transport require as much thinking per mile as sailing - the sailor has to measure the speed and direction of both the water and the wind, which can constantly change, and then manage an array of sails and underwater hydrofoils at the correct angles to create motion in the desired direction. Navigation is its own challenge too, as it's impossible to sail directly into the wind and boats must 'tack' forward in zigzag patterns to make progress. All of which makes it quite remarkable that a group of European enthusiasts have created a Linux-brained autonomous sailboat bristling with sensors and capable of working its way around pre-set race courses or sailing to pretty much any nautical destination without any human intervention. Earlier this year, the ASV 'Roboat' became the first world robotic sailing champion at an event in Austria.

The ASV Roboat is a 3.75m Laerling - a beginner's sailboat that has been adapted to become a completely autonomous sailing vessel. The Laerling design was chosen because of its 60kg keel ballast and large, buoyant foam-filled body, which combine to make it very difficult to tip over and virtually unsinkable.

The 800MHz/512 MB Mini-ITX computer controlling the Roboat runs a Linux operating system and a control software suite using Java and C++. Onboard sensors bring in GPS data for position and speed over ground, speed through water, ultrasonic wind speed and direction data, tilt-compensated compass, humidity, air and water temperature and water depth.

Solar panels make the Roboat largely energy-independent, although there's a direct methanol fuel cell to top up the batteries as a backup.

Once destination parameters are entered, the Roboat calculates and recalculates its route depending on the constant stream of data it receives. Chain-drive motors operate the mainsail, jib, rudder and boom to sail the boat to its destination.

Some nice technology. My own autonomous boat is too big to transport to the contest, and not robust enough (yet) to do the long duration missions. Very nice to see this catching on.

Other articles are in EcoFriend, NextWeb, Clean Technica, and Marketing Feeds .

Robotic Sailboat

I just set up some google alerts for the terms "Robotic Sailboat" and "Autonomous Catamaran" and a few others, just to catch things as they popped onto the net. I got this video below from the alert set to "Autonomous Sailboat."

It is a video from the microtransat group, but the link to their website is dead, leaving only this (sad) video behind.

UPDATE: I found a live webpage for the project.

Video IBoat
Uploaded by oh_dae_su

Somewhere, someone remembers all of the work they put into this.

Autonomous Parachute Drop

Some time ago, I had proposed using high performance ram wing parachutes to do precision guided drops of equipment and material. The basic idea is that the aircraft don't like to fly low (usually because they are getting shot at), but if they drop the cargo from high up it tends to drift with the wind and land far from the intended site. This was demonstrated in a rather memorable scene from the movie "A Bridge Too Far," in which a paratrooper is killed rescuing an airdropped canister which turns out to be full of berets.

Which is why this press release announcing the successful test drop of a 30000 lb payload using an autonomously guided ram wing parachute caught my attention.

The new system, called the GigaFly, was successfully deployed from a C-130 aircraft at 15,000 feet carrying a 33,000 lb load. The system landed fully autonomously at a gentle 14 feet per second rate-of-descent less than 275-m from the intended point of impact.

GigaFly is a 10,400 square foot ram-air parachute, also known as a parafoil, with a wingspan of 195 feet it is nearly as wide as the wings on a Boeing 747 (211-ft). Designed for airdrop at altitudes as high as 25,000 feet, GigaFly guides itself to a designated point on the ground from up to 22 kilometers away using its specially designed on board GPS guidance unit and software.

Solar UAV sets endurance record

Solar powered aircraft have had the theoretical capability of being "atmospheric" satellites as long as they could store some energy on-board (or fly high enough that they would glide down during the night). The BBC is reporting about a three day record from the Zephyr, built by the QuinetiQ company.

The latest flight was conducted at the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

The Zephyr flew non-stop for 82 hours, 37 minutes.

That time beats the current official world record for unmanned flight set by the US robot plane Global Hawk - of 30 hours, 24 minutes - and even Zephyr's own previous best of 54 hours achieved last year.

However, the Yuma mark remains "unofficial" because QinetiQ did not involve the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale), the world air sports federation, which sanctions all record attempts.

The US Department of Defense funded the demonstration flight under its Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) programme.

This programme is designed to advance the technologies American commanders would most like to see in the field.

"We think Zephyr is very close to an operational system - within the next two years is what we're aiming for," Mr Kelleher said. "We have one more step of improvements; we trying to design a robust and reliable system that will really sit up there for months; and we want to push the performance."

There is some nice video of the launch of the craft over at the BBC site.

The Boat makes EngineeringTV

Well, it is not everyday that your project makes EngineeringTV. The gentleman talking is Ken Childress, the marketing guy, and this was filmed down at the AUSVI conference in San Diego earlier this year. Still, that is my boat, and there is no uncertain amount of pride seeing it go through its paces in the video.

The Harbor Wing Autonomous Unmanned Surface Vehicle (AUSV) is unique. Defined by three innovative components: the WingSail, the Hydrofoils, and the Guidance System, it will perform a range of critical missions. The design and integration of these components is the product of world class expertise and vision from Harbor Wing's team. By providing situational awareness to operational commanders, Harbor Wing's high-tech AUSV will meet fundamental requirements of military, government, and commercial customers.

Phoenix has landed!

The NASA Mars lander, Phoenix, has landed on the planet surface and is reportedly in good health and sending back data.

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars today to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander's robotic arm.

Radio signals received at 4:53:44 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53:44 p.m. Eastern Time) confirmed the Phoenix Mars Lander had survived its difficult final descent and touchdown 15 minutes earlier. The signals took that long to travel from Mars to Earth at the speed of light.

Mission team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the University of Arizona, Tucson, cheered confirmation of the landing and eagerly awaited further information from Phoenix later tonight.

There is a ton of information on the NASA site, including pictures, press releases, and explanations of the science packages.