Limited to two motors and $600, mechanical engineering students from the University of California, Davis designed and built this shoe-tying machine. I particularly appreciate how the robot uses the same technique as I do: the bunny ears method.
Given the crushing strength of this machine and the way large chunks of concrete balance atop distressed rebar, this worker might want to consider goggles and not turning his back on the machine. Read the rest
Ever drive over a manhole that was not flush with the pavement? This is how they fix them.
Via Mr. Manhole:
In 2002, we recognized that there had to be a better way to remove manhole frames from the road, and came up with the Mr. Manhole system, a state-of-the-art set of tools, and a repair method that makes manhole removal and repair easier and safer for your crew.
It looked like it was starting to snow a bit at one point. Let's hope Mr. Manhole has the number for Mr. Plow.
• Mr. Manhole Full Process - How it works (YouTube / Mr Manhole) Read the rest
Husqvarna's remote-controlled demolition robots remind me of the machine art performances that Survival Research Laboratories has staged since 1977.
Husqvarna bills its machines as "remote workmates ready to tackle your heaviest, most challenging jobs."
Compare that to what Survival Research Laboratories founder Mark Pauline told me in a 1993 interview:
"The real message of machines isn't that they're helpful workmates," Pauline said. "Like any extension of the human psyche, machines are scary things," he says. When you take the scary human psyche and magnify it hundreds or thousands of times with technology, it's really nightmarish."
(via Uncrate) Read the rest
Behold the wire-bending machine—a video I though would be curiously satisfying to watch, right up there in the "robots making things" pantheon of satisfying videos depicting repetitive movements, but which isn't satisfying at all, really, even if it is briefly hypnotic when it makes the loops. It's too staccato, too arrhythmic, too angry. You get the feeling the wire-bending machine hates its job. Read the rest
Static shelves with bins holding small parts take up a lot of space. It's interesting to see this case study of how a traditional warehouse was able to use wasted air space to reduce storage area by 94%. Read the rest
If you thought you might live out your days without seeing an industrial hedge clipper form shrubs into perfect spheres while accompanied by Wagner, everything changes today. Read the rest
The gold standard of egg machine videos is back with some lovely footage of some new devices: Polish egg processor OVO-TECH demonstrates the Egg Splitter Rz3. Read the rest
This appears to be surveilling AI chatboxes set up to debate the fine points of constitutional law. It's presumably based on a transcript of an interaction between a sovereign citizen and a cop, but I'm not sure which one as all such interactions are nearly identical (sovcit patter is extremely rigid, and the cops adopt the firm-but-polite bemusement reserved for angry white people).
In other surveilling AI chatbox news, Google admitted yesterday that their newest surveilling AI chatboxes, including those sent to journalists to review, have a "bug" whereby they record audio 24/7. Read the rest
Some YouTube rabbit holes are worth the trip, like a foray into the genre of tunnel-cleaning trucks. It's next-level powerwashing porn. Read the rest
Hand made at 1/3 its designed size, this 125cc V10 engine has a miniature yet throaty roar. Creator Keith5700 explains:
Read the rest...my references for designing stuff is just to keep plodding away looking at pics, and reading stuff on forums. Most things are designed from scratch these days, but I do a lot of image Googling, looking for pretty things to copy.
As relaxing, amusing and intriguing as any other: "an impressive Rube Goldberg machine with a 4-minute course. The beads move in a chain reaction divided into several more complex steps, including the one with a whiteboard that turns to release new balls positioned on the back side." Read the rest
“Do not try this at home!! or at anywhere else!!” Read the rest
Salem Barker's kid isn't afraid of a little hard work. At five, he already knows how to run the hydraulic logsplitter they rigged up at their farm. Read the rest
After a long week of demoralizing Trump hijinks, what you need is the satisfying release of a hydraulic press video. Here's one crushing 1500 pounds of paper. Read the rest
Just for kicks, Australian auto system manufacturer AXT Turbo put a fidget spinner in a vice and blasted it with an air compressor:
We were playing around with the fidget spinner after work, seeing how fast and what the structural integrity of the unit is. We first started with finger on it until it got a little hot. Then we put in in a vice. After it let go, we calculated it was turning 50000 plus RPM.
(via Laughing Squid)
Intralox makes these incredible machines. Excellent material for making perfect-loop GIFs.
Previously: Lost and lonely dildo on a conveyor belt Some sort of machine pooping out globs of meat Read the rest
