georgia

Watch: Beach-walking 'FlipperBot' inspired by baby turtles

While it might look like a giant robotic pet, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have actually created the "FlipperBot" to generate new data on how organisms move.

The robot mimics the movements of sea turtle hatchlings struggling to reach the ocean. These little creatures need to rely on dexterity and flexibility in their wrists to get around without moving a lot of the surrounding sand.

"We are looking at different ways that robots can move about on sand," Daniel Goldman, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "We wanted to make a systematic study of what makes flippers useful or effective. We've learned that the flow of the materials plays a large role in the strategy that can be used by either animals or robots."… Read more

'Rushing fireball' could turn carbon dioxide into biofuel

Scientists cite as a major driver of climate change the large amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere that's created by the burning of fossil fuels. They spend day after day trying to figure out a way to generate power for the world's populations, but at the same time leave a smaller carbon footprint.

Now, researchers at the University of Georgia say they've hit upon a way to take the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and turn it into useable industrial products. The impact of such a discovery is potentially huge.

The goal is to remove the CO2 directly from the air and turn it into biofuel -- not only helping power the world, but hopefully taking down global temperatures at the same time.

The researchers essentially have created a microorganism that acts like a plant that removes the carbon dioxide from the air and turns it into something we can use. During photosynthesis, plants utilize sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide from the air to create their food source. This would behave in a similar fashion. … Read more

Woman breaks into house to browse Facebook, police say

It's possibly one of the less pleasant experiences in life to come home after a night with your boyfriend to discover someone is using your laptop.

Yes, sitting right there in your living room, browsing her Facebook page as if this was, in fact, her house.

This, sadly, is what apparently happened to a 33-year-old resident of Athens, Ga.

As the Athens Banner-Herald has it, the homeowner got back to her house Sunday lunchtime to find an unknown (and currently unnamed) blond woman allegedly browsing Facebook.… Read more

Sensor system gives disabled kids a second shot at tablets

For some people, touching a touch screen is difficult, if not impossible.

According to Georgia Tech, more than 200,000 kids in the U.S. public school system have some sort of orthopedic disability that hinders them from experiencing the vast information that awaits them on a tablet or smartphone. Children with neurological disorders -- such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida -- can also have difficulty using touch-screen devices due to motor skill impairments.

The need to counteract this limitation inspired Ayanna Howard, a Georgia Tech engineering professor, and graduate student Hae Won Park to create Access4Kids, a prototype assistive device that could level the playing field.… Read more

This robot wants to put MacGyver to shame

If MacGyver were trapped behind a jammed door in a burning room, he would use his shirt to filter the smoke, then craft an explosive from a paperclip and strand of hair to blow that baby open.

If today's most sophisticated robot found itself in the same conundrum, it would likely be unable to follow the famed secret agent's resourceful example. A team of Georgia Institute of Technology researchers hopes to change that.

They're working to equip machines to use objects in their path for high-level tasks, particularly those involved in tedious military operations. Robots are forging an increasing presence in military and civilian missions, with the U.S. military actively challenging roboticists to design robots for disaster relief.

"This project is challenging because there is a critical difference between moving objects out of the way and using objects to make a way," Mike Stilman, a Georgia Tech professor of robotics who's leading the research team, said in a statement. "Researchers in the robot motion planning field have traditionally used computerized vision systems to locate objects in a cluttered environment to plan collision-free paths, but these systems have not provided any information about the objects' functions." … Read more

Need power? Rub some plastic together

Researchers at Georgia Tech today revealed a triboelectric generator that creates energy when two specific plastic materials rub against one another.

Zhong Lin Wang, a professor at Georgia Tech, created this new spin on an old concept by harnessing the power of rubbing together textured transparent sheets of polyester and polydimethysiloxane. When given an electrical load, a tiny current of electricity flows between the two materials during friction and separation. Repeating the action of grinding and separating creates an alternating current, also known as everyday electrical energy. The output of rubbing the materials yields as "much as 18 volts at about 0.13 microamps per square centimeter," according to a Georgia Tech press release. … Read more

RoboWrap ready to revolutionize silverware wrapping

Working at a restaurant requires doing many repetitious tasks, but perhaps the most tedious and lamented (aside from bathroom cleanup) is wrapping silverware in a napkin.

To solve that age-old annoyance of having to bundle countless utensils, the Capstone Design class at Georgia Tech created an autonomous silverware wrapper capable of perfectly packaging silverware at a respectable speed. … Read more

Can iPhone spy on you as you type on different device?

Hackers may be able to spy on your keystrokes if you keep your iPhone too close to your computer, a group of researchers reported this week.

According to Georgia Tech University computer science professor Patrick Traynor, it may be possible for hackers to hide malware on an iPhone 4 that is capable of sensing "keyboard vibrations [to] decipher complete sentences with up to 80 percent accuracy." And while Traynor and his team say that it would not be an easy thing to accomplish, it is definitely possible.

Because iPhone 4s--and other current-generation smart phones--have both an accelerometer and … Read more

Swarm robots form landing pad for quadrotor

I love swarm robots, especially when they pull off tricks that you can easily imagine a robot army doing.

Researchers at the Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab have been having fun with small Khepera robots and a quadrotor.

Ted Macdonald and colleagues previously taught the rolling bots to spell the lab's acronym, GRITS, as seen in this video. Now they've made the bots form a mobile landing platform for the quadrotor.

The vid below shows how the Khepera robots can be told to follow a leader bot and assemble into various formations. It's interesting to note that they don't communicate with one another, just like the experiment when they spelled GRITS. … Read more

PR2 robot helps quadriplegic man shave himself

PR2, the beer-fetching, laundry-folding, breakfast-making jack of all trades robot, has taken up a job as personal assistant for a man disabled by a stroke.

Maker Willow Garage has partnered with Georgia Tech's Charlie Kemp and colleagues of the Healthcare Robotics Lab to help Henry Evans and his wife Jane in a project dubbed Robots for Humanity.

It sounds rather grandiose, but the humanoid robot has made a real difference in the life of Evans, who suffered a brain stem stroke at age 40 that left him paralyzed and mute. Therapy has enabled him to move his head and a finger.

That allows him to use a computer and control PR2. The bot helped him scratch an itch for the first time in 10 years.

As the vid below shows, Evans prefers to shave himself with PR2 rather than have others do it. … Read more