Cleatus Robot Toys Seized for Lead Contamination

Posted 7 Feb 2010 at 22:48 UTC by Rog-a-matic

Border Protection officers and officials from the Consumer Product Safety Commission seized two containers full of FOX Sports Cleatus Robot action figures at a Seattle port in January. The Chinese-made toys, valued at almost $100K, were found to have unacceptable levels of lead in violation of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.

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Swisslog SpeciMinder and RoboCourier Robots

Posted 3 Feb 2010 at 23:46 UTC by steve

Swisslog Healthcare announced they will be making available two new robots to hospitals, the SpeciMinder and RoboCourier. The robots are made for Swisslog by CCS Robotics and are based on the MobileRobots MT400 bases and Motivity autonomy technology. The Swisslog press release explains what the robots are for:

SpeciMinder is designed exclusively for INTRA-departmental materials transport. For example, a large one-floor laboratory or pharmacy in which several workers frequently move goods among multiple workstations is an ideal environment for SpeciMinder. RoboCourier will be available later this year and is designed for INTER-departmental materials transport. Like SpeciMinder, RoboCourier will be able to interface with doors, but it will have the added capability of interfacing with elevators and navigating hallways. This capability will allow RoboCourier to navigate multiple floors within a hospital, meaning it can transport materials from one department to another.

For more, see the Swisslog press release. If you'd like all the hardware details on the base, check out the MobileRobots MT400 Technical specifications.

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Bacteria Turn Microgears

Posted 30 Jan 2010 at 00:15 UTC by Rog-a-matic

Researchers from Argonne National Lab and elsewhere are finding ways to use the motion of swimming bacteria to move very tiny gears. The gear's shape directs a group of unsuspecting bacteria in such a way as to cause rotary motion. This motion can then be used to power tiny mechanical systems - possibly medical devices or maybe even tiny robots. Speed of the gears can be controlled by modulating the oxygen level within the suspension fluid - since bacteria love o2, feeding them more increases the speed while cutting off the supply stops motion.

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Weird Force One: Robot-a-day Mission

Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 20:40 UTC by steve

I'm not sure exactly what Weird Force One is; person, art collective, disembodied hand. What ever it is, it's making robots; lots of tiny robots constructed from found materials. Here's how the creator(s) of this video describes it:

The Robot-A-Day creative mission undertaken by Weird Force One at the request of some sort of Robotic overlord that showed up to his new year's party and never left. Will Weird Force One really build a giant robot army over the course of the entire year???

You can check out the photo gallery on the Weird Force One Facebook page for a better at some of these robots.

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Random Robot Roundup

Posted 22 Jan 2010 at 19:43 UTC by steve

CMU scientists announced significant progress in deciphering how the brain encodes language, resulting in a testable neurosemantic theory predicting what area of the brain will activate for specific nouns. Find out more in the press release or the research paper (PDF format). Adam Claflin sent us links to his handmade robots which look like a cross between BEAM robots and art objects. If you see one you like, you can probably pick it up on his Etsy site. If you're looking to buy a robot in Australia, Michael Gruber writes to tell us that his retail robot store, called the Robot E Shop carries the Metal Fighter robot made by Mini Robot of Korea. They also sell Innovati robotic systems and Gestream's tiny BeRobot humanoid. VIA, always working on smaller computers, announced the Mobile-ITX, a 6x6cm form factor x86 module. The Swirling Brain has swirled up a couple of interesting stories too, including a new artificial larnyx that synthesizes speech in response to a tongue-activate palatometer and the all-time creepiest baby-headed robot ever conceived. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. And don't forget to follow us on twitter.

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Robot Evolution Through Intelligent Design

Posted 21 Jan 2010 at 18:50 UTC (updated 21 Jan 2010 at 18:52 UTC) by steve

That's the motto of RoMeLa, the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech. At RoMeLa, Dennis W. Hong, PhD and his students have been creating a lot of really interesting new robots. In the video above from the TEDxNASA conference, Hong offers a short overview of their research. Of particular interest to hobbyists should be the DARwIn humanoid robot. According to an Industrial Embedded Systems article, a low-cost open hardware version of is planned. Oh, and if you're wondering about that motto, Hong tells us:

Though it has both "evolution" and "intelligent design" in the sentence, it has nothing to do with either - "we" push the boundaries and come up with the next generation robotics (robot evolution) through us doing rigorous research and designing them intelligently (intelligent design). I think it is a clever tag line for our lab.

If you're interested, you can find out more about several of the robots and their unusual modes of locomotion at the RoMeLa website including STriDER, CLIMBeR, IMPASS, and HyDRAS-Arm. There is also a website for TEAM DARwIn and their efforts to win the RoboCup Humanoid League soccer competition. Hong and his robots were recently highlighted by Popular Science in the article Ten Young Geniuses Shaking up Science Today.

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Pololu's Low Cost Hexapod Robot Design

Posted 20 Jan 2010 at 17:26 UTC by steve

Pololu has posted a tutorial for an easy-to-build hexapod robot. As can be seen in the above video, despite the robot's small size, it can walk forward or backward, turn left or right, and has IR sensors for obstacle avoidance. Paul Grayson of Pololu writes,

I wanted to point you to a new tutorial I posted on building a really simple, low-cost hexapod walker (using the Micro Maestro, of course) I am hoping that the simplicity of the design will appeal to a lot of people who want to take their first "step" beyond differential drive bots.

Not surprisingly, you can get all the parts you'll need at Pololu. It's based on the new Micro Maestro USB servo controller, three sub-micro servos, two Sharp GP2Y0D810Z0F sensors, and a 4.8v battery pack. Add some jumbo paper clips, some hot glue, and you've got a little robot. For complete documentation on construction and programming, see Pololu's full article, titled Simple Hexapod Walker.

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Robotic Maid Makes Breakfast

Posted 19 Jan 2010 at 23:47 UTC by The Swirling Brain

Mahru-Z is the robotic maid that can make breakfast!. Given certain voice commands the robot can perform functions such as working a microwave, delivering toast, and other tasks such as washing clothes. The robots can see with stereoscopic vision and can identify what objects are and even decide what jobs needs to be done with the objects. In the video, one robot appears to be tethered and the other is not making me wonder if they are really self contained. Also, one is wearing a dress and the other not, so are they both maids or is one a butler? Shouldn't they just call them robotic servants or is that redundant? Regardless, although not apparently sentient, these do appear to be advanced robots. I only wonder if they washed their hands before and after handling the food?

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Willow Garage Wants to Give you a PR2 Robot

Posted 18 Jan 2010 at 20:23 UTC by steve

The folks at the I heart robotics blog let us know that Willow Garage, the startup working on the PR2 personal robot and the open source Robot Operating System, just announced a PR2 Beta Program. They're looking for labs and research organizations willing to work with the PR2 and contribute to the rapidly growing ROS software stack. Make a proposal describing the open source software and scientific contribution you'd like to make. Willow Garage will give a PR2 to those organizations with the best proposals. They'll favor proposals that do one or more of the following

* Enable scientific breakthroughs in personal robotics
* Expand the open source robotics community
* Develop reusable components and tools
* Dxplore new applications for personal robots

The Robot Operating System, despite the name, is not an OS but a software stack that runs on top of the GNU/Linux OS and includes a standardized robot-specific API, the OpenCV libraries, Player/Stage, and the TREX goal/event driven behavior framework. For details on how to participate, see the Call For Proposals. For all the details on the PR2 robot itself, see the PR2 specification page. To see an early prototype of the PR2 in action, see our previous video of the robot plugging itself in to recharge.

Humanity Hangs in the Balance

Posted 18 Jan 2010 at 16:24 UTC by Rog-a-matic

Chris McVeigh (AKA: PowerPig) catches Optimus Prime and Megamunk in the throws of battle. Exactly who will come out on top is still uncertain. Meanwhile, check out PowerPig's Flickr photostream and start off your workweek with a smile.

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Building a Better Robotic Mousetrap

Posted 16 Jan 2010 at 22:49 UTC by steve

Steve Ross of telovation.com writes, "The robotic Better Mousetrap detects and exterminates everything in sight. Your visitors might also get a kick out of the video". The "Better Mousetrap" was built by Jake Easton who notes, "junk is the inventors best friend, and goes a long way to keeping project costs down". Jake admits that his mousetrap may be a bit overdesigned but does look awfully cool and it's very shiny. For all the technical details see the inventor's press release.

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Random Robot Roundup

Posted 15 Jan 2010 at 19:57 UTC by steve

Reader Carlos Montesinos noticed that Evolution Robotics is now selling their own floor cleaning robot called Mint, a little square robot that appears to clean the floor by pushing a paper towel around. Our friends at Plastic Pals posted a story with some video of the Fujitsu ENON robot working a crowd. Rog-a-matic was amused by the artist's take on robot waste in an ad for electro-recycling. 3 Quarks Daily has a short piece on Obama's progress in reversing what some have called the Bush administration's war on science. The short version is: things are looking up but there's a long way to go. Finally, Travis Deyle writes, "I thought you might find this interesting. It's a robot that uses electrostatic field sensing (much like those off-the-shelf capacitance sensors) to find and plug itself into wall outlets." We also reported on the self-plugging Willow Garage robot recently. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. And don't forget to follow us on twitter.

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Robots: Deep-Sea Exploration

Posted 15 Jan 2010 at 16:00 UTC by mwaibel

One typical area of application for robots are dangerous environments. Say 1000m below the ocean surface. Or next to an erupting volcano. Or both, as recently accomplished by Woods Hole's ROV JASON. As expedition leader Alberto "Tito" Collasius Jr. tells us in the latest episode of Robots, driving a robot next to an explosively erupting volcano will give even the most seasoned deep-sea explorer sweaty palms. For a closer look, check out these two amazing videos, tune in or read on.

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Robots Aid Rescue Teams in Haiti

Posted 14 Jan 2010 at 20:19 UTC by steve

We're not surprised to see robots aiding in disaster relief efforts in Haiti. Beale Air Force Base has dispatched a Global Hawk UAV that will provide aerial imagery to support humanitarian efforts. But it looks like ground-based search and rescue robots may not be as useful as in past disasters. Dr. Robin Murphy of CRASAR says they are unlikely to send a ground-based search and rescue robot team as their robots are primarily useful in large building collapses, not in residential areas, "dogs smell much faster than the most agile robot can get in the rubble." She goes on to say,

In these large geographically distributed disasters, aerial assets are helpful in establishing what is damaged, where people appear to be in the most danger or need, and whether roads are passable. Marine vehicles can be of value in inspecting sea walls and checking shipping channels.

The United Nations has deployed several USAR teams into Haiti from around the world, including two teams from the US. One is the California heavy rescue task force, CA-TF2, a 70 person team with 55,000 lbs of urban search and rescue gear and medical equipment. Second is the Virginia VA-TF1 team with another 72 personnel and 48 tons of heavy equipment. Both teams have used search and rescue robots on past missions but there's no word yet on exactly what equipment was shipped to Haiti. It is known that both teams will make heavy use of canine teams. The US Government has deployed military teams to Haiti as well. US Air Force teams will repair runways and set up air traffic control needed to get the main airport back in operation. The US Navy is deploying at least 7 vessels including a hospital ship, along with teams for rescue, salvage, and construction. The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, which is en route, typically carries ROVs, AUVs, and Predator UAVs. US Coast Guard cutters, C-130 aircraft, and helicopters have been deployed for search and rescue. If you want to do something to help as well, visit Google's Haiti disaster response page.