Dexter is a robotic arm that can perform any job and learns new movements from human interaction and costs about $2,000
Dexter is a robotic arm powered by an FPGA supercomputer. It has five axes and interfaces with the user in a user friendly way thanks to the latest generation user interface. Dexter is able to perform any movement and reproduce those shown by humans. It's basically like having an automated factory at your fingertips.
At the moment, the Dexter robotic arm is being launched on the popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. The developers explain that their goal is to allow users to make a product at any time and in any way possible. Not surprisingly, Dexter can draw, design, 3D print and create prototypes. It also has an open source license that allows enhancements to third party companies. Thanks to the five axes that move the robot, we can create any type of product we have in mind. It doesn't matter the shape or size.
Technical Features
The FPGA supercomputer was implemented on the robotic arm to improve and overcome some accuracy errors that sometimes exist in 3D printing devices and automated machinery. The motors are directly managed by the central computer that lowers the position or changes the center of gravity of the arm to avoid even the slightest error during the work phase. The supercomputer uses two ARM-9 processors to operate. As mentioned Dexter can also learn new design movements simply by interacting with humans, via application, or if it is connected to other intelligent machines that have recorded certain movements in their systems for printing or product manufacturing. Dexter is also a modular robot that can be modified according to the work it needs to do. In this way it can be transported without unnecessary weight or it can be bought and used for a single, specific task. Using Dexter is not difficult, but it is not a robot that can be used by just anyone. You need to have some programming knowledge, especially with JavaScript. The basic version of Dexter on Kickstarter costs about 2 thousand dollars and shipments are already available worldwide as the economic goal has already been reached.