Super-fast robotic arm catches items in midair

Oh noes here comes terminator, and I want one i got so many trash to trow it

The arm, which measures about 1.5 meters long and has four fingers including one that works like a thumb, was able to pluck a ball, an empty bottle, a half-full bottle, a hammer, and a tennis racket out of thin air. It uses a series of cameras to "watch" the objects coming its way and then makes the necessary moves to act like a star center fielder.

"Today's machines are often pre-programmed and cannot quickly assimilate data changes," said Aude Billard, head of the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory at EPFL where the arm was programmed. "Consequently, their only choice is to recalculate the trajectories, which requires too much time from them in situations in which every fraction of a second can be decisive."

CNET

So i saw robocop the other day (wasn't that bad) and now i'm thinking, in the movie the made the body react itself, to be controlled by the machine and not the brain of the guy, but at the same time it gave the illusion of control to the brain, as it was making the moves, couldn't be possible in the future instead of a complicated neural interface to robotic limbs that hinder the whole process just do something like this arm and the illusion of control to the patient.

If its not for amputees them is a cool fetch toy anyways on technology!

a reply to: Indigent

Cool but I'm thinking killer robots are just over the horizon.

a reply to: minusinfinity

we just can dream , oh wait that's a bad thing

a reply to: Indigent

I guess it depends if you're controlling the robot or having your body squished by the robot.

It's all perspective.

I was just waiting for that arm to start bashing her with the racket. Anyone?

a reply to: Indigent

a reply to: denybedoomed

Hell ya! That would have been the best viral video of the year!!!! lol

a reply to: Indigent

Only if it kills off the people you don't agree with.

I don't mean you Indigent but I am sure there are plenty that cannot wait for that day

Cool, these things are evolving pretty fast these days!
I think a small model able to catch mosquitos and houseflies in mid-air would be a mega hit!

originally posted by: Indigent


So i saw robocop the other day (wasn't that bad) and now i'm thinking, in the movie the made the body react itself, to be controlled by the machine and not the brain of the guy, but at the same time it gave the illusion of control to the brain, as it was making the moves, couldn't be possible in the future instead of a complicated neural interface to robotic limbs that hinder the whole process just do something like this arm and the illusion of control to the patient.

If its not for amputees them is a cool fetch toy anyways on technology!

Virtually two different disciplines you are talking about nowadays. The way forward for amputees is for the regrowth of limbs and organs. Robocop will be a 'normal' person made superhuman by artificial means more like predator. It will be interesting to see which comes first, well actually, regrowth is supposed to have already occurred when some elderly American lost the top of his finger. Not only did he lose it, he never found the tip. But he was treated by a scientist with a powder, and whatever the treatment was, his finger regrew from the stump, it wasn't a graft.

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