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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/62609
COVER STORY
There are other challenges for the team before delivering the final product. There is still a need for better batteries or more efficient power sources. There is a need for better sensors for autonomous operation. In addition, a better kind of actuators that mimic biological muscles (rather than electric motors) would help with the creation of the robots. And, the cost of these components is high, which does not allow them to be for everyday use.
Nevertheless, with the help of Apple products, students can significantly speed up the development time. The Xcode has drastically sped up the development time for complex coding projects. Overall, Apple products have made robot development easier, as the team can now focus on designing and fabricating the robots and not on hardware or software issues.
"As someone who works on the hardware and software of robots, Mac OS provides the perfect base platform to work from. My work demands that I can run Unix and Windows operating systems. The need to run Windows is solved using a software package called Parallels. The power and reliability of my Macbook Pro really shines under the load of the virtualizing multiple operating systems," said Taylor Pesek, a student at Virginia Tech and RoMeLa.
Apple has successfully created products that changed the way we function. And in Hong's opinion, since OS X is a good operating system consideration for robotics, it may be good for human-robot interfaces. For example, "using an iPad or iPhone for the main controller and interface for simple robots is a very attractive strategy."
Another well-known robotics project is the Google DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency ) robotics challenge. It announced in April that it will award a $2 million prize to the team that can complete a series of difficult tasks. Their goal is to push the states-of- the-art in robotics beyond today's capabilities in support of the Department of Defense's disaster recovery mission. Each team will truly be challenged. Universities and businesses of all sizes are welcome to enter.
The future of robotics has just begun. Maybe one day we will have a robot to do dishes for us, take out the trash and do laundry. "I would really like to see robots being used for disaster relief, and saving people's lives," Hong said.
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