manipulation by air (who needs a robot arm?)

[Admin]

Nothing scientifically revolutionary, but a pretty neat device to add on to a robot.

Robo-Air Jet System Makes Objects Float

[Razor Concepts]

How does that work when the ball is not above the device? Something has to be sucking the robot towards the device while the air pulses repel it.

[z.s.tar.gz]

It has to do with a vortex around the stream because of the two air sources I assume.
btw, onion peeler mode is my favorite

[parallax]

Absolutely incredible!  How do you think they are keeping track of the object's coordinates when they are moving the balls through the hoops? I didn't see anything that looked like sensors. Computer vision perhaps? So fascinating!

[McFire]

Stereo vision cameras track the objects, and a control algorithm uses the position data and a fluid dynamics model to adjust the air jet, varying its speed and direction to keep the object in equilibrium.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/robotics/robotics-software/automaton/robo-air-blower-makes-ping-pong-balls-defy-gravity

[parallax]

Thanks for the link, McFire    Something about this concept and its execution really intrigues me

[SmAsH]

Wow, that's kinda cool... What got me was how it could control the object while it wants directly above it...

[Joker94]

the air jet was power full 

the amaizing bit for me was the water bottle as it is not uniform and has uneven parts and for the fruit that matter as well

over all that was really good.

[z.s.tar.gz]

I'd like to see it do something with both flat and curved surfaces, like a stapler or something.
The water bottle was cool though, I'll have to admit.

[Hawaii00000]

I've seen people do this stuff with leaf blowers, its really neat.