robotics

Piaggio Develops Industry-First Safety Sensor With 4D Imaging Radar

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by Cristina Mircea from https://www.autoevolution.com Piaggio’s robotics subsidiary in Boston announced the first-of-a-kind sensor in the industry, including 4D imaging radar technology. The new sensor is supposed to increase safety in motorcycle and scooter riding. Piaggio Fast Forward (PFF) is based in Boston and is owned by the Italian motor vehicle manufacturer. It is a robotics company that develops smart mobility solutions and has a few popular machines on the market, such as the “gita” hands-free following robot that can carry 40 lb of gear for up to four hours on a single charge. With the help of PFF and Vayyar Imaging, a 4D imaging radar company, a new sensor technology has been developed and it will have several applications. The new hardware-software modules will be used in both consumer and business robots, as well as in motorcycles and scooters. Piaggio claims its sensor technology is the industry’s first-ever 4D imaging radar-based motorcycle safety platform. It plans to use it for its motorcycles’ Advanced Rider Assistance Systems (ARAS), enabling a bunch of safety functions such as blind-spot detection, forward collision warning, or lane change assist, thus protecting riders. According to the Italian manufacturer, the sensor incorporates complex, single-chip 4D imaging radar technology, comes with ultra-wide-field-of-view, and supports a range of more than 328 ft (100 meters). It provides mapping and object detection and control, regardless of the lighting or weather conditions. PFF designed the sensor specifically for motorcycles and robotics, addressing their specific challenges. It is capable of tracking multiple targets and makes sure there are no dead zones that can lead to collisions of any kind. Piaggio specifies that the new technology will be implemented in PFF’s robots starting at the end of this year. As far as using the module for its own motorcycles, the company says it […]

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Honda Self-Balancing Concept Is Meant for Disabled Racers and Moto GP Lovers

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by Cristian Curmei from https://www.autoevolution.com You love motorcycles, and you love racing them. But life sometimes throws things at us that take away some of our most treasured abilities. This is the story of how a concept could bring a second chance to disabled amputees. So you’re a Moto GP racer. Last season, while trying to overtake the soon to be second place racer, your rear tire was clipped from the outside and you were thrown over the bike. Not too big a deal, as you’ve been through it before. But this time you somehow end up underneath the bike and are dragged till you pass out. You wake up in the hospital, with doctors telling you that the only other choice they had was to let you pass on. You try to move but you can seem to prop yourself on your left arm. Looking to your left, you see that there is no left arm to hold you up any longer. You break down in tears knowing you’ll never again experience the track or life as before. That’s most likely the kind of story that gave way to this concept by Tom Hylton. This two-week project was designed to offer a second chance to amputee riders. It is a two-part unit, and since we’ve recently introduced the arm into the stories, it’s now time for the bike. The entire design includes the modular Honda robotic arm, which is specifically tuned for motorcycle use, but also this wonderous beast upon which a rider is placed. What we are looking at is a self-balancing design that can stay upright without any sort of assistance. Behind its self-balancing trick is similar technology to the BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100. But this isn’t about BMW. It’s about how Honda could meet a

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This Robotic Prosthesis Promises a New Life for Motorcycle Riders

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by Cristian Curmei from https://www.autoevolution.com If you’ve ever had an accident that caused you to lose functions of a certain body part, you might be able to imagine what it may be like for an amputee. A new design is looking to change all that and offers a second chance to a once lost love. Every once in a while, a human comes along and changes the rules of the game. Out of struggle and hardship amazing designs to meet unconventional needs are born. This time, the story is about how we can continue our favorite past-time of riding motorcycles even after accidents would leave us incapable of naturally doing so. A designer by the name of Tom Hylton, an intern at Jaguar, has designed an innovative solution for amputees who would still like to take that Sunday ride. A bionic arm bearing the Honda sigil. More so, it’s even capable of being taken out to the racetrack, on paper anyway. This design is still a concept so I’m not sure how soon we would be seeing it on actual riders, but that doesn’t mean that it deserves any less respect. Taking into consideration that it offers the ability to continue being a rider even after a limb-losing accident, this device is one of the more promising designs around. As you can see, the design revolves around your basic human arm, but with a few less functions. For example, the arm includes only a bicep, triceps, elbow and forearm. No palm component, that we normally use for throttling or picking things up, exists. Instead, the arm has a pincer like end that should allow it to connect to any throttle stick. So, it’s specifically made for motorcycling and nothing else. That being said, the arm does include a few components

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