Jimmy
Intel Futurist and Principal Engineer Brian David Johnson has partnered with students for the semester to develop the design as well as a working prototype of one of the first “open-sourced” humanoid-robots, Jimmy.
Brian is forecasting that the revolution in robot making can happen anywhere (in garages, maker communities, classrooms) and doesn’t have to happen exclusively in a company’s R&D lab. In a small garage or basement or classroom, the next Jobs and Wozniak could be creating a $2B robot company right now. To support and foster a wide-spread creative robot-maker community, he is pursuing the first “open sourced” humanoid-robot – Jimmy, in which both the full design and code will be released for anyone to use.
Olin Robotic Sailing
For thousands of years, boats that used sails and oars were the only meansof moving about on the sea. They were our gateway to the mysteries of the ocean, powered by the wings of the wind. Olin’s Robotic Sailing Team is breathing a new life into this ancient art by introducing cutting edge robotic technology. We dream of crossing the Atlantic ocean autonomously.
Last year, the team took fourth place in the International Robotic Sailing Gala. Please take a look at Olin's Robotic Sailing Team's website.
Snotbot
Whales, being apex predators, are useful indicators of the health of the ocean. i.e. if there is are toxins in the water in a part of the ocean, it will become concentrated and detectable in the whale. One way to measure this is to get a biopsy sample from the whale, but this is difficult and rarely succeeds. Another is to collect the “whale blow” which is actually material from inside the whale’s lungs. Olin is working with Ocean Alliance to create an autonomous sample collection robot that can catch “whale blow” before it lands back in the ocean. These robots have to be smart, easy to operate and ocean- and whale-blow proof.
Kona
Kona is an unmanned surface vehicle designed to conduct surveillance over a given area, particularly that of fisheries.
Robotic Tuna
Tuna are highly efficient hydrodynamic shapes. Building an autonomous unmanned vehicle (AUV) with such a shape and with the given swimming action would make for a more efficient underwater vehicle allowing for greater, long-distance speeds and high maneuverability.
We are currently working on various ways to actuate the bio-mimetic propulsive system of the vehicle, or the tail of the fish. This includes the exploration of soft robotics, from utilizing Lorentz forces generated by magnets and wire coils to creating silicon muscles that are pumped with some fluid.
WALL-E