Posted on 09/07/2014 1:28:29 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Robot Couch Can Drive You to the Fridge and Back
With a Raspberry Pi and USB gamepad controller letting you run riot on your sofa, this student project is couched in innovation.
Sometimes, getting up off the couch to grab a drink is far too time consuming. What if you could drive the couch to the fridge instead?
Well, your dreams of an automated couch have come true. Nine engineering students at the University of New South Wales in Australia have designed a robotic couch that can be controlled using a standard USB gamepad.
Featuring a custom-built steel chassis with mecanum wheels instead of legs, the "robocouch" can reach speeds up to 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) per hour. All up, the ensemble weighs approximately 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and cost AU$3,000 ($2802, £1717) to put together.
The wheels are driven with 12V electric scooter motors which are all connected to a central controller to regulate speed. In the armrest, a Raspberry Pi also interfaces with the central controller.
While the couch has been in development for a year, the students hope that it will move beyond a cool party trick and wheel itself into an autonomous future.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Just in time for football season. Now here’s technology we can use!
Oops... been done.
bump
Let LazyBoy do it and this will read:
(The Recline of Western Civilization) Robot Couch Can Drive You to the Fridge and Back
But I don't need such things... I just have a mini-fridge for an end-table... : D
If you remember being a young man in your teens or early 20s, or for those who still are.
Isn’t it fascinating how we could be energy busting out all over the place, here there, everywhere, ADD, and hyper, two a day football workouts, yet at times a half dozen of us could sit in front of a TV, and none of us could force ourselves to get up to turn it on, or change the channel, instead we would be practically lying in our chairs or couches, paralyzed with fatigue, unable to reach the remote, arguing for half an hour over who should reach for it, wishing that we had a stick so that we could slide it over to the us.
To have to get up to get another beer, was like facing a hurdle too unsurmountable for us, thank God for girlfriends to fetch beer for us and make us a sandwich.
A robot couch would have been so useful in my youth.
I agree. The fridge should come to you so you don’t miss any of the game. There should also be a robot urinal.
That’s not a decline of civilization, that’s awesome. If they can give it range it could be everything they said the Segway was going to be.
Can reach speeds up to 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) per hour.
At that speed, you can become one with the refrigerator, permanently.
That sort of delivery beats any kind of mobility.
I think we are missing the point. These students are applying what they learned to a whimsical project about control theory. When I was their age I thought it would be novel to have an IR sensor that would point at the remote for a TV. It’s a college project which is supposed to be a little fun.
I need one for gardening/weeding...
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