caterpillar

Saturday, November 8, 2008
Robots

World’s Largest Robot Vehicle Coming from Caterpillar and Carnegie Mellon

9:30AM Wilson Rothman | The celebrated roboticists of Carnegie Mellon University are using their DARPA Urban Challenge know-how to give the gift of autonomous operation to a 700-ton mining truck formerly known as the Caterpillar 797B. As you might have suspected, the Japanese construction-gear firm Komatsu was actually first with an automated mining vehicle, but being Japanese, it’s more compact, OK puny. Officially no mobile robot will have weighed as much as this bright yellow bastard, according to Discovery. It’s way too easy to make a Terminator reference here, so I’m gonna have to play the Maximum Overdrive card. Not scared yet? Read on. More »
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Vehicles

Caterpillar Building 700-Tonne, Completely Automatic Mega Dump Truck

5:30PM Gizmodo US Edition | Gearheads at Carnegie Mellon University are partnering up with tractor-maker Caterpillar to build the world’s largest robotic dump truck, a 700-tonne ground mover capable of hauling 240 tonnes of earth. In case you can’t wrap your head around that amount, that’s like 33 African bull elephants worth of dirt. More »
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Saturday, September 6, 2008
Science

Concrete-Jet Printer Gets Caterpillar Funding: Print-Out Houses on the Way

1:15AM Kit Eaton | Check out this lengthy vid: it shows how one day you may just call-in giant robots to print out a new home based on a CAD model. Research into the concrete-jet printer is being carried out by USC, and their technology can already build up complex concrete structures using technology that’s half-CNC machine and half inkjet-like. They’ve just got funding from Caterpillar to further the research. Amazing stuff, especially when the team says it should be eventually be able to put together a 2,000-square-foot, two storey home in just a day, with all the wiring and plumbing automatically inserted too. Even NASA is interested, as this may be a good solution for building Moonbases. [The Register via Bot Junkie] More »
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