You are probably thinking that the next week is the 100th issue of Weekly Robotics but technically… it’s today! The reason the numbering is a bit off is because of me not numbering the 2018 in Robotics Summary. We can always celebrate twice! We can even try to rent a bunch of Spot and Pepper robots. The most clicked last week was the article on no-till farming with robots with 10.3% opens.
1) The Octo-Bouncer: Advanced Bouncing Patterns.
Electron Dust
INFO: Before you read this blog post by T-Kuhn check out this YouTube video that was featured in the issue #33. Not only it seems T-Kuhn have made huge progress in platform redesign last year but this particular blog post covers interesting advancements in plate redesign and ball detection using a custom approach.
2) Magnetic Couplings Make This Lego Submarine Watertight.
Hackaday
INFO: Very inspiring build for two reasons: 1. It’s all done from LEGO and a single IKEA food container and 2. The magnetic coupling is magic. Do you know anything like this used in the industry? Let me know and I will feature it in the next issue.
3) NASA’s Venus Rover Challenge Winners Announced.
heroX
INFO: In the issue #91 I’ve mentioned the challenge for Venus rover design. Some of the designs participants have come up with are very interesting, even more so that some of them managed to build full-scale prototypes.
4) Basalt.
GitLab
INFO: This is a library for visual-inertial SLAM that I discovered thanks to allenh1 response in this ROS discourse topic. Looking at the project website the results indeed seem very good. I’ll be looking forward to testing this library at some point in the future. I’ve already added the library to the Awesome Weekly Robotics list.
5) Motion(Path) Planning in Robots.
Medium
INFO: In this post, Gunjan Giri does a short write up on some of the path planning algorithms in Robotics. For the implementation of some of these algorithms, you can check out PythonRobotics repository.
6) MIT DriveSeg Dataset for Dynamic Driving Scene Segmentation.
MIT AgeLab
INFO: MIT AgeLab in collaboration with Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center had released this dataset that can be used for non-commercial purposes. You can see how the segmentation was performed in this video.
7) Publication of the Week - Design of Extra Robotic Legs for Augmenting Human Payload Capabilities by Exploiting Singularity and Torque Redistribution (2020).
arXiv
INFO: Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRLs) are robots extending human capabilities that are not kinematically tied to the operator’s limbs (see the pdf for images). In this work, Researchers present an initial prototype of such a system built using motors from hoverboards, RoboteQ motor controllers, 8020 aluminum extrusions, and some machined parts. Looking forward to seeing the first working prototype at some point in the future!
Sponsored
1) Humble Book Bundle: Programming for Makers by Make Co.
Humble Bundle
INFO: Learn how to program - the Makers way, with this ebook bundle! Get books like Making Makers, AVR Programming, Make: Arduino Bots and Gadgets, Make: Linux for Makers, and more. As usual with Humble Bundle links featured by purchasing the books using the link above you can choose to support Weekly Robotics and help grow the newsletter. Thanks!
Job Seekers
In the issue #83 I’ve started this section to try to help out those looking for work in the times of pandemic. If you are currently looking for work then feel free to send me your details in the same format as you can see in the entries below.
Name: Hao Cheam
Location: Amherst, MA, USA. Willing to relocate across USA
Skills: Python, C++, C, openCV, PyTorch, Keras, Tensorflow, Raspberry Pi
Profile: Master’s Graduate in Computer Science specialised in Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics. Looking for Software Dev, Computer Vision Eng, Machine Learning Eng opportunities
Social Profiles: LinkedIn
Email: hcheam@umass.edu