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A CNN
Technology article described Rocky, a robot squirrel being used by
researchers to study squirrel behavior in the real world. Rather than
observing squirrels in an artificial lab environment, Sarah Partan of
Hampshire College and other researchers are using robot squirrels to
study the
animals in the natural environment. Scientists hope to learn more about
squirrels communication techniques, social cues, and survival instincts.
In additional squirrel-droids, the article mentions other cases where
robots are being used to study
real animals in the wild including an intimidating robot lizard and
promiscuous robot cockroach. The article doesn't mention whether Rocky
has a built-in cell phone like the last robot squirrel we
covered.
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Fiberoptic vision
sensors developed by the Naval Air Warfare Center
and the University of Wyoming, inspired by the eye structure
of the common houseflies, might improve operation of future robots.
The analog eyes along with their parallel processing system are very good
at locating edges of tiny objects, and creating a view of the object even
beyond the resolution of the detectors. As the object moves
across the sensor, edge transitions effectively adds resolution to the
information.
Applications for the sensor with its 1mm ball lens include medical,
industrial, defense, and commercial robots.
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We've see super-tiny grippers before, but the
ultra-super-tiny gripper developed by
Yu Sun of
the University of Toronto in Canada moves to the next level.
Not only can it grasp individual objects just 10 micrometres across,
it also exerts a tiny, yet controllable force of as little as 20
nanoNewtons using feedback. The result is the ability to grab tiny
items and not damage them in the process. This comes in handy when
manipulating living cells that are deformed or damaged easily when
man-handled. The microscopic gripper can also detect objects it bumps
into allowing software to autonomously close in on them for manipulation
faster and more accurately than manual control by a human could.
Unlike many other exotic advancements, these tiny tweezers are also
easy to manufacture by standard silicon etching processes resulting in a
production quantity price of only $50.
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How far are you from a Superfund site or Nuclear power plant?
How many chemicals are in human breast milk?
Well, you need a ERAR-AT V1.0 -
Environmental Risk Assessment Rover–AT to find out, aggregate the
threats, and help you understand the riskiness of contemporary life.
While difficult to call a robot due to its lack of self-mobility,
ERAR-AT looks ripe for upgrades with a couple of synthetically
lubricated gear motors,
a ROHS-compliant H-Bridge, and a hexavalent chromium-free drive train.
After all, it already has key components of robotification including
a solar power system, GPS, and vast array of sensing elements.
ERAR-AT can also project video of fourteen-tiered threat levels
onto natural and architectural surfaces in a similar way as R2D2
spilled the beans with that Princess Leia Hologram trick.
This question stands out among the many asked:
"Why has modernity, which was supposed to create a sense of
security,
produced more anxiety and threats than ever?
"
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Sylvain Calinon writes, "I am a postdoctoral fellow working on
humanoid robot and imitation learning, at the Learning Algorithms and
Systems Laboratory (LASA), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL), Switzerland. We just posted some videos of our work on Youtube,
showing a humanoid robot learning to whip egss, cut ham and grate cheese
to do an omelet." There are two videos, a short version and
a long version.
You can read more about Sylvain's work
on his website. The work is designed to allow robot learning by
imitation using a three phase approach: demonstration, modeling, and
reproduction. A number of research papers are
available if you want to learn more about their approach. This work
is being done at the EPFL Learning
Algorithms and Systems Lab.
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An 18 year old patient at the Orthopedic University Hospital in Heidelberg
is the first to test the Fluidhand prototype and compare it to the i-LIMB.
The hand has a large contact area and a soft interface giving it greater
grasping ability and a more life-like action.
Actuators are mounted in the fingers instead of in the wrist eliminating
the power transmission systems normally required for artificial hands.
Beyond the intended prosthetic application, one has to wonder if this
type of technology will eventually be recruited for robotic applications
where having human-like qualities could improve the acceptance and
functionality
of an otherwise cold machine.
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 | Random Robot Roundup | | Posted 29 Apr 2008 at 20:26 UTC by steve |
Sorry for the news slowdown, folks! The editor mailbox is filling up
fast. First up is an announcement from Trossen Robotics of their new chat
rooms (don't forget the robotics IRC group is still
out there too). Markus
Waibel sent links to info on the Navy's
$1.16 billion robot aircraft program, a gizmodo article on a flexible
wing, crawling micro-drone, and engadet posts about the Quadrotor
Aeryon Scout and the Caltech fruit
fly flight simulator. From the Swirling Brain come links the creepiest
robots around, swarming
Belgium bots, an update
on the O Terrill bum
bot - it's being criticized by homeless advocates now, robot
jellyfish (with video), a concept for a futuristic
clear cut robot (to stop fire, not destroy rain forests,
hopefully!), and a DARPA
award to Boeing for development of an ultra-long endurance UAV that
can maintain a stationary position above a target for as long as five
years. Neil Shurley let us know that he's started a new blog called This Week in World Robot
Domination. Kevin Prescott of ITC results writes, "I thought you
might be interested in a couple of our recent robotics research
articles, both about EU-funded research projects." He includes links
to an article on the MACS
project and RoboCup.
We have two new blog posts from Roland Piquepaille, one on a robot crab built from Lego
Technic bricks and one on those robot jellyfish
mentioned by the Swirling Brain. Finally, Mark Miller sent a link to an
assortment
of videos he made using his android prototypes, for anyone who needs
a little robot humor. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing
facts we should report? Send 'em our way please.
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In the latest Talking
Robots podcast we interview Yoky Matsuoka, head
of the Neurobotics
Laboratory at the University of
Washington in Seattle. Combining robotics with neuroscience,
Matsuoka has constructed an Anatomically
Correct Testbed hand (ACT) using passive compliant materials coupled
with simple control algorithms rather than traditional materials. Apart
from serving as a testbed for scientific studies of the neuro-control of
movement, Matsuoka is also working on future applications in
tele-manipulation and prosthetics. For more on this and other projects
conducted at her lab listen
in.
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 | Report on 2008 MOBOT Race | | Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 18:22 UTC by steve |
John Palmisano of the Society
of Robots writes, "I just
wanted to tell you about the recent MOBOT contest at CMU last
weekend as potential interesting news.
I competed in MOBOT 2008
at CMU last Friday. I got up two
competition
videos I figured were worth posting. C|net
also reported on it (My robot is on page 6 and 11). The documentation
on my robot includes video and the final score at the bottom of the
page. And within the next day or two, the CMU newspaper should also have an
article on
it." (and another
article)
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 | Robots from Letters | | Posted 23 Apr 2008 at 00:46 UTC by Rog-a-matic |
Jonathon Yule, a freelance designer studying at the York/Sheridan
Bachelor of Design program in Toronto, shows off his keen interest and
talent in typography
with Font Bots - a robotic artform created from a collection of
everyday letters.
T-Shirts
have not escaped the mighty Helboticia.
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LinuxDevices.com reports that SigmaTel has
released an ARM9-based System-on-Chip aimed at Linux-based personal
navigation devices but it looks like it would be ideal for robots as
well. To help reduce the cost of handheld devices, SigmaTel added
a NiMH/Li-ION battery charger, boot ROM, power management, audio
circuitry, and other goodies. The SoC is also designed to easily
integrate with several popular GPS chips including Broadcom, SiRF, and
NXP. All the usual I/O
ports are available too: LCD, FLASH interface, S/PDIF, GPIO, UARTS,
timers, even some ADCs. If you weren't aware, SigmaTel is also in the
process of being
acquired by Freescale.
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Collin from Make writes, "I thought the Robots.net readers might be
interested in the "Make
a Cylon" contest we're running over @ Makezine.com". This looks
like fun. The idea is that you make something, anything, that's your
idea of a Cylon. Maybe it's a toaster
with a roving red eye; perhaps a
model; maybe it's
a full-size
replica of shiny metal Cylon Centurian, or something inspired by one of the softer
and friendlier Cylons? Use your imagination - maybe some Cylon
cookies or a Cylon
Halloween pumpkin. Who knows - maybe the The Swirling Brain will
build a Cylon rolling ball sculpture of some sort. The only catch is
that it has to
be something physical that you've made - no photoshop images or
drawings. Photos of the entries will be posted to Make's
flickr group with a dvicemakecylon tag and they will be judged by
Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer).
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| Random Robot Roundup | | Posted 18 Apr 2008 at 17:13 UTC by steve |
Sergey Popov
writes, "Skilligent recently released an updated
version of its computer vision system" (PDF format). He also
posted a YouTube
video of a robot using their software. Steven Frye writes, "Unlucky Fried Kitten has a new
musical coming out soon titled The Robot's Revenge. It's about the day
that Robots will inevitably take over the world.".
The Swirling
Brain has been busy sending me more links than I know what
to do with including a NewScientistTech
story on Capuchin, Stanford's climbing robot, a CNN
story on Robosapient:Rebooted, a film starring the WowWee robot, a
Wired
story on mini-robot spy balloons, io9 stories on Surrogates,
an upcoming technology-oriented Bruce Willis moving and a creepy
emotional robot, an AfterDowningStreet
update on the Pentagon's cyborg insect program, and an article
on El-E the human interaction bot (another reader sent links to the
Healthcare Robotics lab
where El-E was designed). Roland Piquepaille, meanwhile, has posted new
stories on firefighting
beetle-bots and the 3D-R1 mine mapper we
mentioned Tuesday
Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please.
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The uC
Hobby blog reviews six types of prototyping boards including a
phenolic 0.1 grid prototyping board where the user cuts the traces as
needed to separate pads. Another interesting prototyping board has
break-away corners that turn it into a circular board; maybe just what
you need for your little, round robots. A related article in the YourITronics
DIY electronics blog describes the process of making your own photo
etched printed circuit boards using a Canon Ink-jet printer. It offers
plenty of photos and step-by-step help on going from PC artwork to an
etched and drilled pc board.
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We've reported on David Hanson and his uncanny android heads numerous times
in the past. Now the most famous Talking Head
of all has partnered with
Hanson to create a singing android for a show at the Museo Nacional
Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. David
Byrne blogged about the collaboration, describing his trip to the
Dallas, Texas area to visit David Hanson's Richardson lab.
In addition to describing their project, Byrne also muses on previous
singing robots such as HAL's performance of "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built
for Two) in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He also notes that he and David
Hanson both ran into similar problems in art school because the schools
weren't equipped to handle people with non-traditional interests.
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3D-R1
is a remote operated survey vehicle equipped with a Riegl LMS-Z laser
scanning system. The robot recently
completed a scan of the San Jose silver mine in Mexico where it
spent 3 and half days mapping 2.2km of "underground drives, stopes
and access ramps", doing more than 80 scans per day and producing
nearly 100 million data points. In less the a month the mining company
was able to replace old mine drawings with accurate 3D data that
"corresponded exactly with existing topographic aerial photographs
and contour maps of the mine site".
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The
Cornell Ranger is a walking robot with 4 legs and no knees. It's energy
efficient but not particularly so compared to other walking robots.
Ranger also shares one trait with the Energizer bunny that makes it
different from all other walking robots; it keeps going and going.
Ranger has previously walked 1km without human intervention. The
builders discovered that another walking robot was reported to have
walked 2.5km on a treadmill and a six-legged robot is supposed to have
walked 2km. So Cornell Ranger set out to beat them and has now set
a new record by walking over 9km - 45 laps non-stop around Cornell's
Barton Hall running track. The Cornell Ranger was developed by Andy
Ruina, Cornell professor of theoretical and applied mechanics and his
team of students. For all the technical details on Ranger's construction
see the technical report, Design
and Construction of the Cornell Ranger, a world record distance walking
robot (PDF format).
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As robots become more autonomous and intelligent they slowly move out of
their protected environments in research labs and assembly lines. First
signs include the tragic death of a municipal
worker killed by an industrial robotic lawnmower as well as the tale
of Zoltan and his robot
girlfriend.
Cynthia Breazeal,
founder and director of the Personal Robots Group at MIT's Media Lab, has developed a broad
range of robots that interact with humans, including the recently
released (and somewhat creepy) humanoid MDS,
the well-known humanoid Kismet,
the robot teddy Huggable™,
the anthropomorphic animal robot Leonardo
as well as the office lamp AUR.
As Breazeal points out, "robots push our social buttons more than any
other technology today". Nearly anything can have a social component
and, as Breazeal's work shows, the possibilities for interaction are
nearly endless. To see videos of her robots and find out where
human-robot interaction is headed check out the podcast.
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It's official. CMU has inducted four new robots into the CMU
Robot Hall of Fame for 2008: Lt. Command
Data, the fictional android
from Star Trek; LEGO Mindstorms,
the popular robot kit; NAVLAB
5, an autonomous 1990 Pontiac Trans Sport; and the Raibert
Hopper, the one-legged hopping robot designed by Marc Raibert who
went on to Boston Dynamics where he worked on BigDog and other biped and
quadruped robots. CMU had previously announced the identities of the four
new famous robots but yesterday's ceremony marks the actual induction. Read
on for the full text of CMU's press release.
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| Spring 2008 Robot Events | | Posted 10 Apr 2008 at 14:17 UTC by Rog-a-matic |
ComBots Cup III, May 3-4, San Mateo
Fairgrounds at the Maker Faire.
Watch combat robots fight it out for the holy grail of gears.
Open to robots from 30-340#. A total of 34 bots are already signed up.
RoboExotica USA, May 10, San Francisco.
Bring your roboartist or automated beer-dispenser and enjoy a
a dash of art and a splash of spirits.
RoboGames 2008, June 13-15, San
Francisco.
Don't miss the world's largest robot competition with over 70 different
events hosting a wide range of robocreations made by hobbyists,
students, and pros.
10+ events are designed to encourage young engineers under 18 with
no registration fees. Gallery.
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