San Francisco-based Meka Robotics has just unveiled its latest creation, the M1 Mobile Manipulator, whose core specialty is lifting stuff. Okay, so it’s not as sexy as its European counterparts which are being marketed for home use, but the M1 is fully capable of accomplishing a variety of tasks.
The variety should of course involve lifting things, which explains its rather odd configuration. Note the large spine on which it elevates itself. The 4 foot robot is also modular, with variants of its head and eyes available to potential customers.
Here’s a good chunk of text from the makers:
“At Meka we believe that robots designed to work in human environments require mobility, dexterity, and compliant force-control. We created the Meka M1 to meet these needs. The M1 is an integrated and customizable mobile manipulation platform.
The M1 was inspired by the successful design of the Georgia Tech robot named Cody. It features compliant force control throughout its body, a customizable sensor head, durable and strong grippers, and a small footprint omnidirectional base.
In robotics, innovation requires robot-on-time. The M1 has been designed for durable operation and rapid experimenation and development. It includes the M3 and ROS software stacks, including a KDL kinematics and dynamics descriptions, ROS URDF descriptions, ROS interfaces, and calibration-free startup for the upper-body.”
Unfortunately this robot belongs to the expensive end of the spectrum. A single unit will cost upwards of $300,000.
Via Technabob