The Personal Exploration Rover (PER) landed on earth back in 2004 when the NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers began to land and explore Mars. And I want one; shame it costs $8000! (Click on the images to get a better view).
According to the Personal Rover website, you can hone your skills as a space scientist by using PER to look for signs of life in each rover’s Mars Yard home. The rover’s camera is mounted on a specially designed head that can create a panoramic image and can also detect obstacles using an optical rangefinder. Once you have downloaded a panorama from PER, you can choose a rock for science testing, then estimate rover heading and distance to reach the rock.
Next, it is the rover’s turn. It will autonomously traverse the Mars Yard following your directions safely while continually checking for unexpected obstacles enroute. After reaching the goal location, PER scans the nearby area and autonomously locates then approaches the target rock. Finally, PER illuminates the rock with ultraviolet light to look for signs of organofluorescence, providing the mission scientist with science data.
The guys and gals at NASA, Ames Intelligent Systems and to Intel Corp. have open-sourced all the code and made it available to all who want to have a play.
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It was Segway that brought us those interesting, two-wheeled moving platforms that were dubbed the future, but never really caught on, except in sci-fi films. Those two-wheeled contraptions that were impossible to fall off, unless of course your name is George W. Bush (but then he did nearly choke on a pretzle so what do you expect!). Anyway, back to the Centaur. A cross between a bicycle and a 4×4 vehicle, the Segway Centaur Concept can carry one or two people at speeds of up to a megre 20mph. Like its predecessor, the i2 Personal Transporter, riding it is supposed to be just as simple. Lean forward and you move forward, lean back and you slow down. Only now there are four wheels so you can’t really fall off (queue George W.).
This human-powered hydrofoil is a cross between a jet ski and a pogo-stick. With no motors, engines or propellers, you simply jump up and down on the platform at the rear, whilst holding on a set of handle bars, a.k.a. a steering column at the front. The bouncing generates forward motion and lift to keep you out of the water due to two submerged hydrofoils. Providing that the hydrofoils are moving forward they will alternate between producing forward thrust and lift as the rider bounces. Sounds good? There is always a catch. If you stop bouncing you get wet! This doesn’t sound like too much of an issue, but if you’re dragging one of these contraptions behind you, to get back to shore and start again, it will feel like you’re doing your gold swimming medal or life guard exam. But then the contraption looks fun, so lets not put too much of a downer on it.
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