SALT LAKE CITY — Visualize a robot that can mirror your exact movements, but with remarkable strength and dexterity.
Utah’s premier robot builders have come up with yet another machine that could change the way humans work in dangerous environments.
Engineers at Raytheon-Sarcos in Salt Lake City demonstrated a unique set of tele-operated robotic arms attached to a modified Ditch Witch. With no training at all, one immediately meshes with the feelings and actions of the machine. It mirrored everything one does with their arms, wrists and shoulders.
As Vice President of Operations Fraser Smith describes, “every way you move, your three degrees of freedom in your wrist, the one in your elbow and the three in your shoulder –the slave arms can move the same way you do.”
The robot translates movements with what is called “force reflection.” In the hands of the machine is incredible strength and agility, depending on what is needed to fulfill the task at hand.
Vacuum forming is a technique used to shape plastic, that forces a thin sheet of heated plastic over (or into) a solid mold by means of a vacuum. It’s used to create a wide range of toys, models, car components, kitchen supplies, refrigerator interiors, boat hulls and more. It’s not something so common that you discuss it with your neighbors and relatives, but is actually pretty simple and achievable at home. Here are some tips on how to get started, cheap and easy.
Instructable: Make a good, cheap, upgradeable sheet plastic vacuum former
A thorough step-by-step on how to make a simple setup using your home oven, some window screen frames, a shop vacuum and a few spare supplies. Super basic but effective system.
0. (SETUP)
0.a. Support the board on something near the oven. The support(s) can be pretty much anything, or any convenient pair of things that is reasonably sturdy, allows us to route the hose to the vacuum cleaner without kinking it, and can be put very near the oven we’re using.
0.b Put some things in the oven which we can support the plastic-holding frames on. (Glasses made of actual glass, for instance.)
0.c. Preheat the oven. This usually gives us more even heat.
0.d Position some object that we want to shape plastic over on the board, over the hole, but with some spacers under it, so that air can flow from around the the object, under it, and to the hole in the board.
1. (HEAT)
1.a Clamp a sheet plastic between the pair of frames and support it on three or four things in the oven (such as glasses made of actual glass)
1.b Wait a few minutes for the plastic to get hot and rubbery and stretchable. For most plastics, we can tell how stretchable it is by how much it sags under its own weight. When it sags about the right amount, we know it’s ready.
2. (FORM)
2.a. (Turn on the vacuum cleaner, open the oven, and) QUICKLY but carefully remove the plastic from the oven with gloved hands…
2.b. …stretch the plastic down over the shape we’re copying, until the frame meets the board, creating a kind of “tent” of hot rubbery plastic over our form and stretching down to the board, and…
2.c. …let the vacuum cleaner suck air out from under the “tent,” by sucking air from under the form, and in turn from around it. This will suck the stretched, rubbery plastic inward into the desired shape, in about one second, and the plastic will cool enough to solidify in the new shape in about 10 to 20 seconds.
I recommend you using styrene if this is your first time vacuumforming. ABS plastic does not heat up as evenly as styrene, and hot spots in the heating process can ruin a vacuumpull. Using the easier to use styrene will save you time and money in the long run if this is your first time vacuumforming.
And keep your eyes open for this fantastic toy from yesteryear: Mattel’s Vac-U-Form. A full system in one, with molds to make toy cars, boats, and more. They can be find online for high prices, or at garage sales for cheap if you’re lucky.
Circular motion can be converted into a four-sided square using the Reuleaux triangle. The process relies on the property of Reuleaux triangle’s diameter being consistent across all points, and when rolled and rotated simultaneously, tracing a square area with slightly rounded corners. By slightly altering the shape of the triangle to mimic a drill bit (for cutting and extracting material), a drill with a specialized rotating chuck can create perfect, four-sided holes. These drills were pioneered by Harry Watts, and can still be found today, albeit not at your typical home improvement store.
published in The Mathematics Teacher, October 1993 (Volume 86 Number 7)
A bit that drills square holes … it defies common sense. How can a revolving edge cut anything but a circular hole? Not only do such bits exist (as well as bits for pentagonal, hexagonal and octagonal holes), but they derive their shape from a simple geometric construction known as a Reuleaux triangle (after Franz Reuleaux, 1829-1905).
I need one of these posters for my shop. From what I hear you can get yours at McMaster or MSC, although I haven’t found a full size one yet. But I did stumble across this book, and it looks good: Home Machinists Handbook
Here’s an online conversion table that can help in a pinch, too.
This isn’t new, and I didn’t come up with it. And, some people say it doesn’t even work that well. But still, for a not-too-tight screw that you just can’t get some pliers around, give this a shot.
A couple months ago I posted about how to improve your video projects by using an iPhone to record improved audio. I described a system that mimics a lavalier (clip-on) mic, by putting the phone in your shirt pocket, or even on the desk next to you.
Jeremiah Warren (the guy who strapped a camera to some fireworks) took the same concept and expanded it a step further — using the iPhone as a handheld microphone in his latest video (about cooking food on the hot dashboard of your car). The interesting thing about this approach is that it creates the concept of a handheld microphone with a built-in-audio recorder, rather than the system where the mic wirelessly connects to a separate recorder. This creates the option of having as many channels of audio as you have microphones (I’m envisioning a full concert with all the instruments and individual drums recorded on a multitude of iPhones). Of course, the iPhone doesn’t have the ergonomics a handheld mic does, nor does it have the same microphone patterns that the variety of mics used for various instruments, sound levels, and recording environments require, but still something I might have to play with…
In February 2011, a group of Spanish engineers debuted a project they had been working on for over six years called Wavegarden — a wave pool concept that uses an active system for creating waves that have the shape and power that surfers normally travel thousands of miles to ride. The initial prototype showed videos of guys ripping on knee-to-waist-high, barreling waves and caused quite a murmur in the surf community: “How does it work? Where is it located? When will one be built near me?” Those questions unanswered, the Wavegarden team shortly afterward announced that they were busy at work on an oversized new prototype that would deliver shoulder-high waves–the height where surfing gets truly competitive.
I reached out to the Wavegarden folks that put this system together, and wrote a piece for Wired magazine about what it is and how it works. Check it out in the August 2011 issue (on newsstands right now), or read the online version (complete with video). And keep your eyes open for their new pool, which is forecasted to be finished around September.
The 2004 NASA astronaut selection. Seated, from left: Bobby Satcher, Chris Cassidy, Ricky Arnold and Shane Kimbrough. Standing, from left: Jose Hernandez, Tom Marshburn, Joe Acaba, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Jim Dutton and Shannon Walker. Not shown: Randy Bresnik.
I was just checking out the NASA brochure for astronaut jobs and hiring information (last updated March 2008). Although the information has to be made available, I didn’t realize they marketed it so publicly — I like to imagine most astronauts as Steve Rogers-style, genetically modified super-scientist outer space aviators. The type that are made, not born, with the sole intention of implementing extra-terrestrial projects of the highest level of classification.
All joking aside, there are some very interesting points in the job post.
Prospective astronauts must be between 62″ and 75″ which is the height requirement of the Soyuz spacecraft that will be ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS for the foreseeable future
“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration accepts applications for the position of Astronaut Candidate on an as needed basis” (added emphasis is mine). I love this line — “Hey Tommy, we need more astronauts, dammit!”
Posts to the ISS can last from 3 to 6 months long. Like a semester at sea, or the ultimate study abroad experience.
A science degree in specific areas (engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics) and just three years of relevant experience are needed to qualify. And a Ph.D counts as three years.
Teaching experience is favorable!
A number of technical degrees do NOT qualify – including archaeology (although I can immediately think of a movie plot where NASA has to retract this requirement upon discovery of alien artifacts that appear …familiar).
Salary: for civilian astronauts, the pay follows the General Scale, grades 11-14, which based on the 2010 chart, means they are generally paid somewhere between $50,287 and $110,104 per year.
“When completed, the ISS will be 356 feet across and 290 feet long, and it will weigh about 940,000 pounds” — for comparison’s sake, a Nimitz class aircraft carrier is 1092 feet long by 252 feet wide, and weighs 97,000 TONS. That’s less than a half of one percent of the weight. Which is smart, since it’s expensive to carry heavy cargo into orbit.
And some detailed bios and interviews with the eleven astronauts from the 2004 selection (pictured above).
Rally racing, awesome as it is, tends to be a European phenomenon. Hilly, public tracks, often off-road. Rallies have been around since the advent of the automobile (mimicking horse-and-buggy races), and nowadays are high-speed, handbrake-turning, hump-jumping affairs. Outside of the European races, a few prominent rallies exist, with the Baja 1000 and the Paris-Dakar being two of the largest.
With that history behind us, here’s a fun way to show of how cultured and European you are: papercraft rally cars you can print and make to adorn your work desk. I’m fond of Volkswagen Touaregs, but the Mitsubishi Lacer with those all-terrain tires looks pretty aggressive too.
I found these and many more on the Czech site car-models.webnode.cz, via one of my fave sites, Paperkraft.net. You’ll need .rar software to unzip the files. If you make any of them, send me pics and I’ll post with your info for all the world to see.
Hi, I'm Mike. I’m the co-host of Science channel’s Punkin' Chunkin' and Catch It Keep It. I work on TV shows explaining and building crazy machines that crush stuff, blow things up, shoot fire, all in the name of science.
I'm a contributor to Wired and a former staffer at ReadyMade, two awesome magazines that focus on technology and diy living.
This site is where I keep a list of instructions for fun projects I've done, am working on, or draw inspiration from. I encourage everyone to get involved -- get up and make something!
ŠKODA FABIA S2000
