Forest fire fighting beetle-like robots in development

ole_forest_fire_fighting_robot_concept.jpgRobots are often developed to do highly unappealing, dangerous jobs, and these beetle-like bots in development by boffins at the University of Madgeburg-Stendal in Germany are no exception.

Their primary purpose in life is to fight forest fires.

Officially called OLE, they could theoretically run at 20-30 kmh, feature ceramic coating to protect them from temperatures of up to 1,300 degrees Celcius, and are able to retract their legs when they sense danger (like being barbecued, for example).

A team of 30 of these concept robots could cover an area of forest as large as 4,400 square miles. Unfortunately, they don’t currently exist, and there’s no clue yet when, or if, they will.

I don’t know what OLE stands for, but it’s probably in German. Any ideas?

(Via Bot Junkie)

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Sony Panoramic Digital Camera concept: will it work?

sony_panoramic_camera_concept.jpg

Sony has mocked up the concept of an automatic panoramic digital camera, designed by Hye-Jeong Yang.

In principle, it works by setting it on a level surface, angling it, and then letting it rotate through 360 degrees to take the panoramic photograph.

In theory, it can store pics and video to a memory card – but of course a concept can do anything.

More importantly is whether it will actually work. One commenter claims that “If it is designed to make panoramas then it should spin around the nodal point (well entrance pupil) of the lens to avoid parallax. Unless I’m missing something then this design is inherently flawed.”

The design doesn’t look quite right to me, though it’s a great concept. What do you reckon? Additionally, as there’s no real model, there are no sample photo either. Guess we’ll have to still to tripod and stitching software for the moment.