Robo Lex Tech - robotics blog of business & technology attorney Anthony Cerminaro

Robots and Rights

2006-01-15T17:54:00.000-05:00

From BusinessPundit:

"This article from Wired is interesting because it highlights some of the issues we are going to face in the future with artificial intelligence. For instance, are most of you aware that some software programs have already out-designed humans?

Evolutionary software has already designed simple circuits, as well as physical mechanisms like the ratchet and cantilever. As these automatic design systems improve and progress from simple geometric forms to novel integrated systems, intellectual property laws must change. If a robot invents, does the patent go to its owner or the patent holder of its artificial intelligence?

I am firm believer that someday Americans will go to the polls to vote about whether or not robots have rights. I believe that consciousness is a function of system complexity, and once we can build systems that are complex enough, they will become conscious. We don't like to think about that because it jars humans out of our sacred place as special creatures here on Earth, but the day is coming when it will happen. Business schools struggle now to teach ethics and make it relevant. I hate to think of the ethical dilemmas that the next generation will have to face when the average person is finally faced with the fact that humans aren't so special. I hope our educational systems can keep up."

Artificial Intelligence Resources

2005-12-23T15:04:00.000-05:00

"The
January 2006 Zillman Columnis now available and is titled Artificial Intelligence Resources. This January 2006 column is a comprehensive list of artificial intelligence resources and sites on the Internet. The subject area of Artificial Intelligence has always intrigued both individuals and corporations and today with the advent of high speed computing and processing the field is ripe for major happenings and events. Download this excellent 15 page free .pdf (493KB) column today and discover the amazing field of artificial intelligence!"

Project Management for Entrepreneurs

2005-09-13T10:37:00.000-04:00

'One of the greatest benefits of projects in an organisational context is their ability and effectiveness in the achievement of goals. The success or failure of projects is largely related to the way that managers develop tactics or plans for the projects and how these plans can be effectively monitored and controlled through the various stages of the project lifecycle. It is a basic premise that the successful implementation of a project requires the development of a set of action plans together with subsequent tactics by the project manager.

The planning stage of the project will define issues such as the project goal, targets and other milestones, as well as the establishment of a relationship with the clients or stakeholders of the project. The tactical aspects of the projects will include activities such as verifying the projects technical abilities, resources needed such as personnel and equipment and putting systems in place for the monitoring and control of the project. Although these planning and tactical activities are carried out through the duration of the project careful attention should also be given to the human issues and its influence on the project. "

Read more in Intro To Project Management for Entrepreneurs
By: Ben Botes.

U.S. Losing Robotics Edge

2005-09-12T12:42:00.000-04:00

"The U.S. leads the way in areas such as robot-assisted surgery and mobile space robots, but is losing ground in other fields. The U.S. once dominated in the development of robots designed for service and industry, but now other countries are catching up and even passing the old golden standard."

Read more in this livescience.com article.

LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots

2005-09-10T21:24:00.000-04:00

LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots is a Brooklyn-based group of artists and technologists developing robotic musical instruments. Founded in 2000 by musician and engineer Eric Singer, LEMUR's philosophy is to build robotic instruments that "play themselves." In LEMUR designs, the robots are the instruments.

LEMUR is supported in part by generous grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation (in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recogntion of the valuable cultural contributions of artists to society) and Arts International. LEMUR is also sponsored by Harvestwork Digital Media Arts Center.

Robotic arm can improve motor control after stroke

2005-08-31T11:33:00.000-04:00

From upcome.com:

"A computerized robotic arm trainer appears to be more effective than electrical stimulation in improving motor control and strength in stroke patients who are left with severe arm paralysis, German investigators report. "

Measuring the IQ of AI

2005-08-11T13:45:00.000-04:00

"New Scientist reports that a pair of scientists have devised a universal IQ test for artificial intelligences:

'Traditional measures of human intelligence often won't be appropriate for systems that have senses, environments and cognitive capacities very different from our own. So Shane Legg and Marcus Hutter at the Swiss Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Manno-Lugano have drafted an alternative test that will allow the intelligence of vision systems, robots, natural language processing programs or trading agents to be compared and contrasted despite their broad and disparate functions.'"

Read more in this seattlepi.com post.

Kurzweil Essays Available as a PDF

2005-07-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

From this Slashdot post:

"prostoalex writes 'The Ray Kurzweil Reader is a collection of essays by Ray Kurzweil on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, radical life extension, conscious machines, the promise and peril of technology, and other aspects of our future world. These essays, all published on KurzweilAI.net from 2001 to 2003, are now available as a PDF document for convenient downloading and offline reading. The 30 essays, organized in seven memes (such as 'How to Build a Brain'), cover subjects ranging from a review of Matrix Reloaded to 'The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine' and 'Human Body Version 2.0.'' "

Robotic Life

2005-07-01T12:53:00.000-04:00

Taking inspiration and guidance from the science of animal and human behavior, the goal of Robotic Life is to build cooperative robots that can work and learn in partnership with people.

"Not only an engineering endeavour, we hope to gain scientific insight into the mechanisms that underlie this human and animal competence, and to develop a science of human-robot collaboration. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of this endeavor, our research explores a wide variety of topics including:

Novel mechanical designs
New sensing and actuator technologies
Active multi-modal perceptual systems
Natural language and gesture interfaces
Expressive movement and skillful motor control
Social learning
Psychological modeling
Human-robot interaction and collaboration"

New Roles For Robots

2005-06-29T15:26:00.000-04:00

"Once viewed largely as a way to save on labor costs, robots today have taken on more significant roles in manufacturing. They're part of global competitiveness plans and are seeing, moving and servicing better than ever.

Get ready for new robot relevance. When General Motors Corp. deployed the first industrial robots in 1961, their roles at a Ternstedt, N.J., plant were justified in terms of handling the 3-D tasks -- dangerous, dirty and difficult. In contrast, today's smarter, more capable robots have also become significant tools affecting global competition. For tomorrow's manufacturing winners, the competitive determinant will be how robots fit into a total manufacturing/automation strategy -- not just labor cost.

Start with a new definition. 'Think of industrial robots as a business strategy tool, one that helps build manufacturing competitiveness in a global economy,' "

Read more in this IndustryWeek article.

Introduction to Nanotechnology

2005-06-19T17:38:00.000-04:00

From nanoword.net:

"Nanotechnology is defined as fabrication of devices with atomic or molecular scale precision. Devices with minimum feature sizes less than 100 nanometers (nm) are considered to be products of nanotechnology. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (10-9 m) and is the unit of length that is generally most appropriate for describing the size of single molecules. The nanoscale marks the nebulous boundary between the classical and quantum mechanical worlds; thus, realization of nanotechnology promises to bring revolutionary capabilities. Fabrication of nanomachines, nanoelectronics and other nanodevices will undoubtedly solve an enormous amount of the problems faced by mankind today.

Nanotechnology is currently in a very infantile stage. However, we now have the ability to organize matter on the atomic scale and there are already numerous products available as a direct result of our rapidly increasing ability to fabricate and characterize feature sizes less than 100 nm. Mirrors that don't fog, biomimetic paint with a contact angle near 180�, gene chips and fat soluble vitamins in aqueous beverages are some of the first manifestations of nanotechnology. However, immenant breakthroughs in computer science and medicine will be where the real potential of nanotechnology will first be achieved.

Nanoscience is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to bring about mature nanotechnology. Focusing on the nanoscale intersection of fields such as physics, biology, engineering, chemistry, computer science and more, nanoscience is rapidly expanding. Nanotechnology centers are popping up around the world as more funding is provided and nanotechnology market share increases. The rapid progress is apparent by the increasing appearance of the prefix 'nano' in scientific journals and the news. Thus, as we increase our ability to fabricate com"

Creating Friendly Artificial Intelligence

2005-06-19T17:36:00.000-04:00

"The goal of the field of Artificial Intelligence is to understand intelligence and create a human-equivalent or transhuman mind. Beyond this lies another question - whether the creation of this mind will benefit the world; whether the AI will take actions that are benevolent or malevolent, safe or uncaring, helpful or hostile.

Creating Friendly AI describes the design features and cognitive architecture required to produce a benevolent - 'Friendly' - Artificial Intelligence. Creating Friendly AI also analyzes the ways in which AI and human psychology are likely to differ, and the ways in which those differences are subject to our design decisions. "

Robots Dance and Play at World Robot Expo

2005-06-10T13:59:00.000-04:00

"They could hit fastballs, draw portraits and be seen breathing. Not bad for robots. Even so, these droids of all shapes and sizes -- more than 60 on display at the World Expo on Thursday -- still need some work.

Their developers say it will be several years before robots that are designed to be part of everyday lives -- rather than serve as simple novelties -- take their place helping the sick, rescuing disaster victims and entertaining families. "

Read more in this livescience.com article.

Electronic assistant would adapt to its boss

2005-06-06T13:19:00.000-04:00

From the Star-Telegram:

"With a strong push from the Pentagon, computer scientists are trying to create an artificial 'personal office assistant' that's smart enough to handle routine tasks for a human boss, military or civilian.

The researchers aim to build an electronic system that understands human language, takes and remembers instructions, learns from its experiences and copes with unexpected situations.
It won't make coffee, but it also won't grumble or demand a raise.

The automated aide-de-camp is supposed to be able to sort e-mail, schedule meetings, make plane reservations, collect information for reports and perform other humdrum, time-consuming chores for busy human managers."

Robotic Surgery Links

2005-05-22T15:27:00.000-04:00

Surgical robots, now used in operating rooms worldwide, are not performing surgical tasks on their own, but "lend a helping hand to surgeons," as discussed in this article from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)(1). How Stuff Works (2) provides a nice overview of some of the robotics systems currently in use and how they are used. This next website from the USC Robotic Surgery Institute (3), which was founded by the cardiothoracic surgeon who was one of the first "to see the potential for robotic surgery," discusses the medical procedures benefiting from this technology and includes a few videos of the surgeries (not for the faint of heart). This next article from Science Daily (4) reports on two studies from UPenn "that demonstrate the effective use of the daVinci Surgical Robotic System to perform Trans-Oral Robotic Surgery (TORS) which greatly reduces surgical trauma for patients." Another way that robotic technology is used in surgery is to allow doctors to perform surgery remotely. The history of this development known as telesurgery is described on this next website (5). This article from The Engineer Online (6) describes a project by researchers in the United Kingdom that aims to develop an image guidance system that uses 3-D images to improve the range of medical procedures for which robotics can be used. Brown University's website (7) also provides a nice overview of the history of Robotic Surgery as well as some basics on costs and demographics, and interviews with doctors and patients. Finally, PBS (8) offers this lesson idea, pro viding students a "journey to the operating room of the future."

For links to the referenced articles, see this post from Marcus P. Zillman

The Approach of Robot Swarms

2005-05-20T11:10:00.000-04:00

t sounds like classic sci-fi: Robots, linked by a common network, roam the land. When one unit discovers something, they all know it instantly. They use artificial intelligence to carry out their mission.

Soon, such marching orders will be real, carried out by robot groups known as "swarms" or "hives."...

Robotmakers find inspiration for their programs in nature: the behavior of bee, ant, and wasp colonies, as well as of flocks of birds and schools of fish. Ants, for example, communicate by leaving pheromone trails that other ants can follow to food. Ants also work as teams to distribute their workload, such as finding the most efficient paths for foraging or deciding who will haul bits of leaves back to the nest, without needing any directions from a leader...

The development of "true swarms," thousands or tens of thousands of mobile robots working together, is many years off and "depends on some things that haven't been invented yet," Greiner says, including miniaturization of components and better power sources and sensors...

Read more in this article from csmonitor.com.

Robots Go to Work at London Hospital

2005-05-18T14:12:00.000-04:00

"Science-fiction moved a step closer to reality on Wednesday when robots nicknamed 'Sister Mary' and 'Doctor Robbie' started work at a London hospital.

The pair allow doctors to visually examine and communicate with patients, whether they are in another part of the hospital or even another part of the world.

'This is a revolutionary concept which opens new avenues in telemedicine research and integrates technology with healthcare,' said Professor Sir Ara Darzi in a statement."

From this Reuters article.

20 Questions Neural Network

2005-05-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

"Want to see an example of what artificial intelligence could do for search? Take a look at 20Q.net, which is an online version of the child's game 'twenty questions.' The premise behind the site is simple: Think of a common object, and then answer a series of questions. 20Q will then 'guess' what you're thinking about. Just about every time I've used it, 20Q has correctly identified the object I've imagined using fewer than 20 questions.

If 20Q.net can't guess what you're thinking, you 'win' the game. The system then presents you with a list of other possible objects that you might have been thinking about. If the object is in the list, click on it, and 20Q will explain its logic to you, indicating contradictions between your answers and its own knowledge base. These aren't necessarily 'wrong,' but rather are an indicator of the learning 20Q.net has gained by interacting with other people.

20Q is a neural network that works much like a human brain. The software has been 'trained' by thousands of users playing the game over the past decade. By interacting with users, the neural net has learned about objects in the real world, and continues to learn as it analyzes each game."

From this searchenginewatch.com post.

U.S. Open Soccer .... for Robots

2005-05-10T13:48:00.000-04:00

"It looked like a scene from a sci-fi flick.

Hugging the sideline, the robot dog waddled down the field and hit a ball with its nose. The ball bounced off the goal post.

It was one of the University of Texas' last chances to get back in the game, which it eventually lost 2-0 to the reigning European champs from Dortmund University in Germany.

Robot dog soccer is one of five games that teams of scholars competed in during the 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open, held Monday at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The aim of the three-day competition, which ends Tuesday, is to develop software for better robots with the long-term goal of fielding a robot soccer team good enough to play a human team by 2050. "

Read more here.

Interest in Artificial Intelligence Rekindled

2005-05-08T18:41:00.000-04:00

"After a speculative boom in the '80s, attempts to encode humanlike intelligence into systems that could categorize concepts and relate them to each other didn't really pan out, and "expert systems" packed with rules derived from human authorities couldn't translate their expertise into areas beyond the subject matter for which they were programmed...

Now a new generation of researchers hopes to rekindle interest in AI. Faster and cheaper computer processing power, memory, and storage, and the rise of statistical techniques for analyzing speech, handwriting, and the structure of written texts, are helping spur new developments, as is the willingness of today's practitioners to trade perfection for practical solutions to everyday problems. Researchers are building AI-inspired user interfaces, systems that can perform calculations or suggest passages of text in anticipation of what users will need, and software that tries to mirror people's memories to help them find information amid digital clutter...

Several industry trends also are helping move AI up on labs' agendas. The emerging field of wireless sensor networks, which have the potential to collect vast amounts of data about industrial operations, the ecosystem, or conditions in a building or home, could benefit from the use of AI techniques to interpret their data. The Pentagon continues to fund AI research, partly to lay the groundwork for intelligent vehicles and robots..."

Read more in this InformationWeek article.

Robot Nurses in the Roadmap

2005-05-06T12:04:00.000-04:00

Japan in 2025 will have household robot nurses that can help lift elderly people into wheelchairs from their beds. So predicts Strategic Technology Roadmap released recently by the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

"The ministry's crystal ball offers mostly down-to-earth predictions, the officials said. The road map is aimed at helping to focus limited research and development budgets on priority projects in fields that are more feasible.

The 200-page road map, distributed to research institutes and businesses, gives predictions for the next two to three decades in 20 fields, including telecommunications, space exploration and the environment.

The report says one of the biggest changes in the home will be widespread use of robots to do chores.

In 2025, a cleaning robot will vacuum and mop floors without human supervision. A separate robot will move furniture out of the way.

Robot nurses will make life easier for elderly people or people with disabilities by helping them to the bathroom or performing other jobs.

Still, these won't be androids. They will be unable to walk, think or talk like humans because neither artificial intelligence nor smooth bipedal movement for robots is likely to be achieved by that time."

Read more in this asahi.com article.

The Robotization of Retail

2005-05-05T12:05:00.000-04:00

"The article Robots in 2015, by Marshall Brain argues that the robotic Wal-Mart is just not that far away. From the article:

In 2015, at about the same time that the airlines are laying off all of their pilots, Wal-Mart or Target or some other large retailer will be introducing a totally automated inventory management system. Every shelf will be fitted with RFID tags, allowing a mobile pick-and-place robot to find the exact shelf location of every product in the store. Every individual product in the warehouse will also be fitted with an RFID tag, so the robot will be able to pick up and identify every product that it needs to shelve. A relatively simple computer vision system will allow the robot to stack items on the shelves. These inventory management robots will operate 24-hours-a-day shuttling merchandise from the back of the store onto the shelves as items are sold. The robots will also constantly straighten the shelves and re-shelve merchandise. All of the technology needed to do this is nearly in place today.

By 2015, every big box retailer will be using automated checkout lines. Robotic help systems will guide shoppers in the stores. The automated inventory management robots will allow the first retailer to lay off a huge percentage of its employees. Competitive pressure will force Wal-mart, K-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, BJ's, Sam's Club, Toys R Us, Sears, J.C. Penny's, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Max, Staples, Office Depot, Kroger's, Winn-Dixie, Pet Depot and so on to adopt the same robotic inventory systems in their stores. The entire transition will happen in just five years or so. Any company that does not automate will be at such a pricing disadvantage that it will go out of business. Ten million unemployed workers dumped onto the job market over the course of five years will have a profound effect on the unemployment statistics in the United States.

Read more in this post from Marshall Brain.

National Robotics Engineering Consortium

2005-04-25T15:08:00.000-04:00

National Robotics Engineering Consortium
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

"The National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC) develops and applies advanced automation technologies to create new opportunities for American businesses. The NREC has a growing number of development projects in a wide variety of industries, and is always eager to work with new industrial partners with new ideas. Whether you're an established Fortune 500 company looking to leap frog the competition or a Start-up creating a new way of doing business, the NREC brings innovation, solid engineering practice and favorable business arrangements to every client partnership."

3-D Simulations Links from Marcus P. Zillman

2005-04-24T13:36:00.000-04:00

Reprinted from this post by Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant:

"3-D Simulations

1) Stanford University: Folding@home
http://folding.stanford.edu/
2) Center for Automation in Nanobiotech: Nanorobotics
http://www.nanorobotdesign.com/
3) University of Texas Austin: Robotics Research Group
http://www.robotics.utexas.edu/simulations/
4) EdCenter: Interactive 3D Modelling
http://www.edcenter.sdsu.edu/geowall/
5) EuclideanSpace: Building a 3D World
http://www.euclideanspace.com/
6) The Breve Simulation Environment
http://www.spiderland.org/breve/
7) Cyberbotics, Ltd.: Webots™
http://www.cyberbotics.com/publications/ars.pdf

Three-dimensional (3-D) rendering and animation technology is not only used for entertainment, but also for research and educational purposes. The technology can be used for purposes of scientific simulation in fields such as physics, biology, or chemistry. For example, Stanford University's Folding@home project (1) uses 3-D simulations and distributed computing to study protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. Three-D simulations can also be used to observe phenomena that would normally be impossible to scrutinize in detail, as is demonstrated on this website on Nanorobotics (2). This next website describes work by the Robotics Research Group (3) in using 3-D simulations to enhance undergraduate and graduate engineering education. The EdCenter (4) makes available several compressed files of 3-D simulations that model earthquake data, Mars, a San Diego Fly Through, and more. On this website (5 ), Martin Baker provides "all you need to know about 3D theory" and this website (6) provides access to a free open-source software package which "makes it easy to build 3-D simulations of decentralized systems and artificial life." This last article from Cyberbotics, Ltd. (7) discusses how mobile robotics simulation programs can be used to design robots. [From The NSDL Scout Report for Math, Engineering, and Technology, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005. http://scout.wisc.edu/]"

MIT OpenCourseWare on Cognitive Robotics

2005-04-24T13:33:00.000-04:00

chp_roverspirit
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

This MIT OpenCourseWare course addresses the emerging field of autonomous systems possessing artificial reasoning skills. Successfully-applied algorithms and autonomy models form the basis for study, and provide students an opportunity to design such a system as part of their class project. Theory and application are linked through discussion of real systems such as the Mars Exploration Rover, pictured in this image.

Camel Race Robots on Tap

2005-04-22T12:06:00.000-04:00

Photos: Robots mount up for camel races CNET News.com: "Criticized by human rights activists for the use of boy jockeys in camel races, some Persian Gulf states are moving to replace the human youths with robot riders. The jockey in red is a robot named Kamel from the Swiss company K-Team.

Credit: M. Salem/AFP/Getty Images"

Robotic News Roundup

2005-04-20T15:25:00.000-04:00

"What a week in the robotic world! All the media wrote about the robots used as camel riders in Qatar, but other exotic machines were also announced, such as robo-matadors in Spain or the future Picasso, the ART Painter in Hartford, Connecticut.

In the medical area, robo-masseurs are helping U.S. golfers, tiny needle-driving robots are developed in Israel while future mobile 'trauma pods' studied in California are still 10 years away. Elsewhere, a robot that could think for itself and solve real-world problems was unveiled in Wales. But my preferred robot this week is TerraMax, a self-navigating robotic truck built in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and which might participate in the second DARPA Grand Challenge in October 2005."

Read more in this post from Roland Piquepaille.

The Coming Robotic Nation

2005-04-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

"Kiosks and self-service systems are the beginning of the robotic revolution. When most people think about robots, they think about independent, autonomous, talking robots like the ones we see in science fiction films. C-3PO and R2-D2 are powerful robotic images that have been around for decades. Robots like these will come into our lives much more quickly than we imagine -- self-service checkout systems are the first primitive signs of the trend. Here is one view from the future to show you where we are headed:

Automated retail systems like ATMs, kiosks and self-service checkout lines marked the beginning of the robotic revolution. Over the course of fifteen years starting in 2001, these systems proliferated and evolved until nearly every retail transaction could be handled in an automated way."

Read more in this great article, Robotic Nation, by Marshall Brain.

Biologically Inspired Robotics Group (BIRG)

2005-04-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

"The Biologically Inspired Robotics Group's research interests are at the intersection between robotics, computational neuroscience, nonlinear dynamical systems, and adaptive algorithms (optimization and learning algorithms).

We develop and apply computational methods with solid mathematical foundations to a variety of problems related to modeling, optimization, and control in computer science, biology, and robotics. We also take inspiration from biology to produce novel types of robots with adaptive locomotion and sensorimotor coordination abilities, and use the robots to investigate hypotheses of how central nervous systems implement these abilities in animals.

We carry out research projects in the following areas: numerical simulations of locomotion and movement control, dynamic simulators of articulated rigid bodies, statistical learning algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, nonlinear dynamical systems, humanoid robotics, amphibious articulated robotics, and modular robotics."

US Soldiers to Carry Robotic Personal Planes

2005-04-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

"One day soon every US soldier could go into battle equipped with their own robot aircraft. The backpack-sized Micro Air Vehicle, developed by Honeywell for the Pentagon's DARPA research agency, will begin flight tests this month at the company's flight base in Albuquerque.

The MAV is 30 centimetres tall, weighs just over 5.5 kilograms and can be carried by a single soldier. It takes off vertically and flies like a helicopter, drawing air through an upright fan to provide lift. The unit also carries both ordinary and night-vision cameras for remote reconnaissance."

From this New Scientist article via this post from Roland Piquepaille.

Mind Over Machine

2005-03-25T10:52:00.000-05:00

"Some monkey business in a Duke University lab suggests we'll soon be able to move artificial limbs, control robotic soldiers, and communicate across thousands of miles - using nothing but our thoughts...

Something incredible is happening in a lab at Duke University’s Center for Neuroengineering—though, at first, it’s hard to see just what it is. A robot arm swings from side to side, eerily lifelike, as if it were trying to snatch invisible flies out of the air. It pivots around and straightens as it extends its mechanical hand. The hand clamp shuts and squeezes for a few seconds, then relaxes its grip and pulls back to shoot out again in a new direction. OK, nothing particularly astonishing here—robot arms, after all, do everything from building our cars to sequencing our DNA. But those robot arms are operated by software; the arm at Duke follows commands of a different sort. To see where those commands are coming from, you have to follow a tangled trail of cables out of the lab and down the hall to another, smaller room.''

Read more in thi Popular Science article.

SnakeBot Robot Conquers Obstacles

2005-03-24T09:42:00.000-05:00

"A virtually unstoppable snakebot developed by a University of Michigan team resembles a high-tech slinky as it climbs pipes and stairs, rolls over rough terrain and spans wide gaps to reach the other side.

The 26-pound robot developed at the U-M College of Engineering is called OmniTread. It moves by rolling, log-style, or by lifting its head or tail, inchworm-like, and muscling itself forward. The robot's unique tread design prevents it from stalling on rough ground, said Research Professor Johann Borenstein, the head of the mobile robotics lab at U-M.

The serpentine robot is propelled along by moving treads that cover 80 percent of its body. These treads prevent the snakebot from stalling or becoming stuck on rough terrain because the treads propel the robot forward like a tire touching a road. Historically, scientists haven't had much success with wheeled and tracked robots on rough terrain because they constantly stall."

From this Newswise article.

MIT Robots Serve Humans Everywhere

2005-03-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

"Robots developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working everywhere and can move without human assistance in a variety of settings, according to this article from the MIT News Office, "Robots serve humans on land, in sea and air." For example, the famous PackBots were conceived at the MIT and are now used by the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and in Iraq. But engineers and robotic designers at MIT also are developing submarine-like vessels to help the U.S. Navy in mine warfare and battlespace preparation. And others are building 'intelligent' aircrafts, such as a 'robochopper' which would be better suited than surface robots to move in chaotic urban environments. Read more, especially about their 'robotoddler'..."

From this post by Roland Piquepaille.

Tracking in Locations Where GPS Does Not Work

2005-03-03T11:51:00.000-05:00

"One idea that seemed worth pursuing was to use dead reckoning aided by an inertial gyroscope. Gyroscopes are essentially wheels mounted so that they can spin about an axis in any direction. Once a gyroscope begins spinning it tends to resist any change in the orientation of its spin axis. This makes it particularly useful in ship stabilizers to counteract rolling. Gyroscopes also lie at the heart of most automatic steering systems, like those used in airplanes, missiles and torpedoes.

But as the basis for a piece of emergency responder gear, expense and size were a major concern. And it seems that relatively inexpensive gyroscopes can be subject to a lot of drift, Fisher says. Positional errors can add up rapidly. That's a critical problem when trying to track a firefighter in a dark, smoke-filled building...

Whittaker suggested using a micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) type of gyroscope. MEMS are mechanical devices built onto semiconductor chips. They are small enough to be measured in micrometers and are used to make pressure, temperature, chemical and vibration sensors, light reflectors and switches as well as accelerometers for automobile airbags, vehicle control, pacemakers and games. Newer accelerometers use a heated gas bubble with thermal sensors. They operate much like the air bubble in a construction level. When the accelerometer is tilted or accelerated, sensors pick up the location of the gas bubble.

NPPTL liked the idea and awarded Carnegie Mellon an initial $100,000 contract to mock up a device in 2002. "It was a nice demonstration but inaccurate," Fisher recalls. A follow-on contract worth $250,000 was awarded for second and third-generation prototypes...

The prototype’s most recent demonstration took place January 20 in Pittsburgh and went "extremely well," Fisher says. During the demonstration a team of two "emergency responders" were able to simultaneously report their position, status and current course of actions to a base station. Also demonstrated was a personal data assistant-based multi-port display. This allowed several people to view the tracking and mapping. And the Carnegie Mellon team also demonstrated a remote viewing capability for the commander's base station. This enabled the tracking and mapping results to be projected onto a large screen for audience viewing.

Another prototype demonstration is set for March. After that, the NPPTL will decide whether or not to commit up to $1 million on field-testing the technology.

If it proves viable, the technology could help protect the lives of people like miners and emergency first responders."

From this directionsmag article.

The Robot Army

2005-02-22T17:26:00.000-05:00

From this Manila Bulletin Online article:

"Here’s a very interesting story from the New York Times that might well turn a reel story the likes of the Terminator series and I, Robot to real life. The article relates the American military’s development of new generation soldiers – soldiers that do not get hungry, do not know no fear, do not forget orders, do not care if the guy next to them gets shot, and do better than humans. Think robot soldiers, but not as human-like as those in the movies I mentioned."

Should Robots Have Rights?

2005-02-16T13:56:00.000-05:00

"AT SOME POINT IN THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT FUTURE, we might actually face a sentient, intelligent machine who demands, or who many come to believe deserves, some form of legal protection. The plausibility of this occurrence is an extremely touchy subject in the artificial intelligence field, particularly since overoptimism and speculation about the future has often embarrassed the movement in the past.

The legal community has been reluctant to look into the question as well. According to Christopher Stone, a University of Southern California law professor who briefly raised the issue in his well-known 1972 essay, 'Should Trees Have Standing?,' this is because, historically, rights have rarely been granted in abstraction. They have come only when society has been confronted with cases in need of adjudication. At the moment, there is no artifact of sufficient intelligence, consciousness, or moral agency to grant legislative or judicial urgency to the question of rights for artificial intelligence.

But some A.I. researchers believe that moment might not be far off. And as their creations begin to display a growing number of human attributes and capabilities�as computers write poems and serve as caretakers and receptionists�these researchers have begun to explore the ethical and legal status of their creations. 'Strong A.I.' is the theory that machines can be built that will not merely act as if conscious, but will actually be conscious, and advocates of this view envision a two-front assault on the fortress of human exceptionalism involving both the physical and functional properties of the brain. And these researchers predict a breach within the next half-century. "

From Legal Affairs - Man and the Machines via this IPTAblog post.

Elektro, the First True U.S. Robot

2005-02-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

elektro
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

"If you happen to be around Ohio this coming fall, don't miss an exhibit at the Mansfield Memorial Museum featuring the 7-foot-tall Elektro, the oldest U.S. robot with its 65 years. 'Elektro is the only survivor of a group of eight robots created by Westinghouse in Mansfield between 1931 to 1940 for several hundred thousand dollars each'...

Back in 1939, Elektro was able to walk, talk, raise and lower his arms, turn his head and move his mouth as he spoke. It used a 78-rpm record player to simulate conversation and had a vocabulary of more than 700 words.Thousands of people enjoyed Elektro at the New York World's Fair in 1939. It even appeared in a long-time forgotten movie, "Sex Kittens Go to College," also known as "The Beauty and the Robot."...

'Elektro was the first true robot ever built in the United States,' said museum director, Scott Schaut. 'Built in total secrecy by Westinghouse, Elektro was promoted as the ultimate appliance. In fact, it was thought that Elektro would one day be able to cook, do laundry and entertain the children.'"

Read more here.

William 'Red' Whittaker: A Man and His Machines

2005-02-09T17:16:00.000-05:00

From an interesting profile of William “Red” Whittaker, now the Fredkin Professor of Robotics at The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University:

"Ideas for robotic creations come to Whittaker from various sources. The motivation for Groundhog, a robot that maps abandoned mines, came after the 2002 Pennsylvania coal mining accident that trapped nine workers underground for 77 hours. Whittaker wanted to develop a tool that would help remove human risk from the industry. In another effort to remove humans from risk, he has worked on developing robots that can explore the radioactive remains of nuclear power plants.

Other ideas come from observing animals in nature, as can be seen in his rugged terrain exploring creation, Ambler. Ambler’s eight-legged design was born from the animal world, but has been modified to use an energy-efficient overlapping gait that is more efficient than anything in the animal world.

'Motivations are in the events of our time – a Chernobyl or a mine entrapment. You can almost read the daily headlines and see the motivations,' said Whittaker of the sources for his ideas. 'Another great one is exploration, and the idea that there is still so much to be discovered in this world and worlds beyond.'”

Thinking Robot A Step Closer

2005-02-08T16:49:00.000-05:00

"A pioneering new way of creating computer programs could be used in the future to design and build robots with minds that function like that of a human being, according to a leading researcher at The University of Reading.

Dr James Anderson, of the University’s Department of Computer Science, has developed for the first time the ‘perspective simplex’, or Perspex, which is a way of writing a computer program as a geometrical structure, rather than as a series of instructions.

Not only does the invention of the Perspex make it theoretically possible for us to develop robots with minds that learn and develop, it also provides us with clues to answer the philosophical conundrum of how minds relate to bodies in living beings."

From this press release from the University of Reading.

Trickle Down Robotics

2005-02-04T11:35:00.000-05:00

SHERPA1
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

The latest edition of TEQ Online the ezine of the Pittsburgh Technology Council contains a profile of Jorgen Pederson founder of resquared (Robotics Engineering Excellence) whose SHERPA robot is pictured here. Pederson is quoted in the article:

"'We don't yet understand exactly how the human brain works or how we seem to do things with such ease,' he says. 'Things that are easy for us are very complicated for a robot.' Pedersen gives the example of simple object recognition, a task that can require a monumental feat of programming in robotics. 'Most of the challenges for the robotics industry still lie there, in being able to better understand the cognitive processes of the human being,' Pedersen says, adding that better, faster, cheaper, smaller technical inventions can only take robotic innovations so far.

With billions of dollars going into new efforts to put unmanned vehicles in the military, Pedersen feels a focus on defense applications is one of the best ways to achieve a 'trickle down effect' for robotics applications. 'The Internet evolved similarly, with a kick- start in the military,' he explains. 'As the technology matures, it gets passed down into the commercial sector.'"

How Military Robots Work

2005-02-02T16:49:00.000-05:00

"The U.S. military has been developing robotic systems for all sorts of jobs for years now, and some of them are even on the front lines in Iraq. In this article [from Howstuffworks], we'll meet some of the military's latest robot soldiers, find out what sorts of jobs they can do and get a glimpse of what the future holds for military robots. "

How Robots Work

2005-02-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

"On the most basic level, human beings are made up of five major components:

A body structure
A muscle system to move the body structure
A sensory system that receives information about the body and the surrounding environment
A power source to activate the muscles and sensors
A brain system that processes sensory information and tells the muscles what to do

Of course, we also have some intangible attributes, such as intelligence and morality, but on the sheer physical level, the list above about covers it.

A robot is made up of the very same components. A typical robot has a movable physical structure, a motor of some sort, a sensor system, a power supply and a computer 'brain' that controls all of these elements. Essentially, robots are man-made versions of animal life -- they are machines that replicate human and animal behavior."

This article from Howstuffworks explores the basic concept of robotics and how robots do what they do.

U.S. Army Prepares Armed 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq

2005-01-26T17:37:00.000-05:00

"The Army is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight in Iraq beginning in March or April.

Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp."

From technologyreview.com post:

'Living' robots powered by muscle

2005-01-17T13:56:00.000-05:00

From BBC NEWS:

"Tiny robots powered by living muscle have been created by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The devices were formed by 'growing' rat cells on microscopic silicon chips, the researchers report in the journal Nature Materials.

Less than a millimetre long, the miniscule robots can move themselves without any external source of power.

The work is a dramatic example of the marriage of biotechnology with the tiny world of nanotechnology. "

Giant robot helps prevent landslides

2005-01-12T13:43:00.000-05:00

From EurekAlert:

"Fighting landslides is dangerous work, but help from space is on its way. Recent testing in Italy has shown that the four-tonne Roboclimber can secure slopes without endangering human lives, thanks to innovations from Europe's space programmes. "

The Future of Robots and Rights

2005-01-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

Evolutionary software has already designed simple circuits, as well as physical mechanisms like the ratchet and cantilever. As these automatic design systems improve and progress from simple geometric forms to novel integrated systems, intellectual property laws must change. If a robot invents, does the patent go to its owner or the patent holder of its artificial intelligence?

I am firm believer that someday Americans will go to the polls to vote about whether or not robots have rights. I believe that consciousness is a function of system complexity, and once we can build systems that are complex enough, they will become conscious. We don't like to think about that because it jars humans out of our sacred place as special creatures here on Earth, but the day is coming when it will happen. Business schools struggle now to teach ethics and make it relevant. I hate to think of the ethical dilemmas that the next generation will have to face when the average person is finally faced with the fact that humans aren't so special. I hope our educational systems can keep up."

Smartest Robot Unveiled

2005-01-07T13:58:00.000-05:00

smart robot
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

"South Korean scientists said they had developed the world's smartest robot able to think and learn like a human.

Unveiling their creation, they said the robot that looks like a small teenager wearing a blue and grey space suit was the first wireless network-based human-like robot.

It can become wiser through learning because unlike other robots, the device is linked with an outside computer through a high-speed wireless telecom network, and is able to exchange information with the server and respond quickly to real-life environments."

From Yahoo! News

Invasion of the robots

2005-01-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

"The robots are coming. And when they get here, they will take out the trash.

Mobile, intelligent robots that can perform tasks usually reserved for humans are starting to creep into mainstream society and could become a multibillion-dollar market in a few years.

iRobot says it has sold hundreds of thousands of units of the Roomba, a self-guided, self-propelled vacuum cleaner that sells for around $200, in just one year.

Other inventors are eyeing the health care market. Joe Engelberger, widely known as the father of robotics, is trying to get funding to build robots that will dress, cook for and generally take care of senior citizens. Home health care robots are being tested in Japan, while U.S. hospitals are already using machines to deliver charts, carry medicines or even assist in surgery. "

From CNET News.com

Fly-eating robot powers itself

2004-12-30T12:15:00.000-05:00

"Scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) have designed a robot that does not require batteries or electricity to power itself.

Instead, it generates energy by catching and eating houseflies.

Dr Chris Melhuish and his Bristol-based team hope the robot, called EcoBot II, will one day be sent into zones too dangerous for humans, potentially proving invaluable in military, security and industrial areas.

Melhuish, who is director of the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab at the UWE, told CNN that the EcoBot II was a result of a quest for an intelligent robot that could function without human supervision.

"That means they need energy. It is one thing to have a robot getting its energy from a household socket, or maybe from the factory floor, but it is another thing when the robot goes outside buildings," he said.

"Of course, there is solar energy outside. Little robots can use solar energy to move about. But mostly, if there is not a lot of solar energy about, you have to give robots batteries -- which eventually run out."

The EcoBot II powers itself in much the same way as animals feed themselves to get their energy, he said.

At this stage, EcoBot II is a "proof-of-concept" robot and travels only at roughly 10 centimeters per hour."

From CNN.com

Honda Upgrades ASIMO

2004-12-16T17:08:00.000-05:00

"ASIMO, Honda's feisty little humanoid robot, is getting an upgrade.
Honda Motor Co. announced yesterday the latest technological tweaks aimed at making the machine more nimble and better suited to interacting with people.

ASIMO serves as a sort of Apollo mission for Honda, a long running research project that's slowly rooting out all the technical issues of delivering a truly humanoid autonomous robot to market.

Posture Control, Autonomous Continuous Movement and 'enhanced visual and force sensor technologies' lead the list of improvements. ASIMO has also grown a bit, with an extra 10cm in height and 2kg in weight ASIMO also has a much longer battery life: 1 hour, up from the 30 minutes of the previous model. "

From extremetech.com

Robotics firm gets $27M government deal

2004-12-15T16:58:00.000-05:00

The Robotics Foundry this week received a $27 million government contract to research and develop defense-related robotic technology. Robotics firms within the Western Pennsylvania region and some from outside of the region will do the work, increasing their bottom lines and bolstering Western Pennsylvania's robotics mecca image.

From the Pittsburgh Business Times

Beautiful House Sitting Robot

2004-12-08T13:18:00.000-05:00

roborior_house_sitting_robot
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

From I4U News:

"Sanyo and tmsuk launch new house sitting robot dubbed Roborior.

The Roborior name is derived from Robot and Interior. The Roborior can be remote controlled with a FOMA phone. The robot can move around and it has a built-in Camera. The Roborior is lighting up in flourescent blue, green and red colors. The Battery holds for 2 hours.

The Roborior sells for 280,000 yen (~$2,696).

More details on Roborior (Japanese) and on PC Watch (Japanese). PC Watch also has a short video of the Roborior. "

Second Career for Old Robot: Art

2004-12-07T13:42:00.000-05:00

From Wired News:

"Assembly-line robots can do more than just build cars. A European art group claims they can draw, dance, even DJ a party.

Robotlab acquires industrial robots -- the metal arms on factory floors that wield welding torches and other manufacturing tools -- and reprograms them to become performers in public spaces. Some of the reprogrammed beasts spin tunes, others paint, and still others perform intricate dances to music."

Robots -- Our Helpers in Space

2004-11-29T14:22:00.000-05:00

From EurekAlert:

"A big advantage of space robots is that they need neither food nor drink and can support very inhospitable conditions. More important still, although expensive to design and produce, their loss is always preferable to that of an astronaut. At this month's ASTRA 2004 workshop robots designed in ESA's space research and technical centre in the Netherlands attracted much attention.

'On Earth, robots regularly take over when it comes to repetitive tasks or when human health may be at risk. They are used to assemble cars, deactivate bombs, weld pipes at the bottom of the sea and work in nuclear power plants,' says Gianfranco Visentin, Head of ESA's Automation and Robotics Section at ESA's ESTEC, the Netherlands. 'In space, it is even more attractive to use robots,' he emphasises. 'They can support or replace people to carry out tasks that are too dangerous, too difficult, repetitive, time consuming or even impossible for astronauts, they can also be faster and more precise than people.'

Jokingly he adds, 'plus they can operate around the clock and do not need to break for lunch or sleep'. "

Robosapien launches cottage industries

2004-11-28T13:14:00.000-05:00

From Manila Bulletin Online:

"Tokyo’s skyline has been regularly menaced by the skyscraper-munching Godzilla, but now it has another foe — Robosapien, one of the hottest toys in the run-up to Christmas.

A homemade movie casting the robot in the role usually reserved for a man in a rubber monster suit is one of thousands of Internet videos, pictures and hacking guides that have sprung up around the toy.

As Robosapien’s maker, Hong Kong-based toy company WowWee, prepares to roll the millionth unit off the production line at its Chinese factory, inventor Mark Tilden says he is astounded at the geek cottage industry that has sprung up around the robot."

Toward a More Human Robot

2004-11-24T12:22:00.000-05:00

From businessweek.com:

"Carnegie Mellon's Takeo Kanade explains why making smarter systems requires better understanding about how people really act

As director of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute from 1992 to 2001, Takeo Kanade has been one of the pioneers in the field of robotics. Besides helping to oversee research, Kanade's technical contributions range from the areas of mobile robots and computer vision to sensors.

Kanade developed the multicamera technology dubbed EyeVision by CBS. It's used for Matrix-like replay of dynamic events such as football games. Still teaching at CMU, he's part-time director of the Digital Human Research Center at Advanced Industrial Science & Technology in Tokyo. Kanade spoke with BusinessWeek Correspondent Cliff Edwards about robotics, the state of innovation in the U.S., and research."

Sanofi-Aventis, CDC Launch Biotech Venture Capital Fund

2004-11-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

From dow jones newswires:

"French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Wednesday announced the launch of a biotechnology venture capital fund sponsored by Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY) and the French state-owned bank Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC.YY).
The two businesses will invest EUR75 million in the fund, PharmaVent. The fund will finance health research and is open to other investors. It is expected soon to total EUR100 million."

Dive! Dive! Dive!

2004-11-24T11:09:00.000-05:00

From Wired 12.12:

"Never have we looked at the ocean, from the surface through the depths to the miles-deep seafloor, in one long gaze. Next fall, Emory Kristof will do just that. The 62-year-old photographer, along with an A-team of biologists, oceanographers, and two of Jacques Cousteau's grandchildren, will venture to the Mariana Trench, just off the coast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. There they will drop a remotely operated camera system 7 miles down to the bottom of the deepest spot on Earth. The result: the first photographic core sample of the ocean. Kristof hopes the mission will help scientists understand how the undersea food chain works."

This article provides a pictorial and narrative virtual descent to 36,201 feet.

The contrabulous frabtraptions of Mr. Wu Yulu, self-taught roboticist

2004-11-23T17:06:00.000-05:00

From engadget.com:

"Sounds like it’s a little too good to be true (or else it’s going to be immediately optioned for a movie), but Sky News has a story about Wu Yulu, a struggling farmer in rural China who spends his spare time building robots out of stuff he finds at the local junkyard. Among his creations, a monkey-like robot that can climb walls, a humanoid bot that can walk around, change light bulbs, and pour tea, and an eight-legged vehicle you can ride around in."

Human, Robotic Programs Share Lessons Learned For Success

2004-11-23T13:09:00.000-05:00

From spacedaily.com:

"Members of NASA's human and robotic programs are cooperating in new ways to support the Vision for Space Exploration. The Vision calls for a 'building block' strategy of human and robotic missions to reach new exploration goals."

Canon to robotize 25% of Output

2004-11-23T13:06:00.000-05:00

From The Japan Times Online:

"Canon Inc. will overhaul its domestic production system by introducing unmanned manufacturing lines, officials of the electrical machinery maker said Monday.

By March 31, 2008, the company plans to have 25 percent of the value of its domestic output, which totals some 1 trillion yen, carried out on unmanned lines."

More Robots Equals More Jobs

2004-11-19T10:57:00.000-05:00

From TheDallas Morning New:

"Robby the Robot and C-3PO still might be years away from reality, but robot vacuum cleaners, medical robots, surveillance robots, underwater robots and demolition robots are here now.

And rather than replacing the human work force, robots are creating a booming job market for engineers, software developers and other technical professionals, experts say.

American Honda Motor Co. is touring the country with the company’s ASIMO Robot— visiting schools to show off the two-legged ’bot to students and spread awareness of careers in the robotics industry."

Shape-shifting robot shows off its moves

2004-11-17T15:21:00.000-05:00

From New Scientist:

"A shape-shifting robot comprised of many independently moving components has been demonstrated walking, rolling and slithering for the first time.

The prototype robot - called ATRON - demonstrated its various metamorphoses in Tokyo on Wednesday. For example, reconfiguring its many individual modules allows the robot to change its mode of locomotion on command."

Scientists develop robot cockroach

2004-11-16T16:31:00.000-05:00

From Ananova:

"Scientists have developed a robot cockroach that can infiltrate a group of real bugs.

InsBot, developed by researchers in France, Belgium and Switzerland, is capable of influencing a group of cockroaches and altering their behaviour.

Scientists say it could lead to robots stopping sheep from jumping off cliffs and encouraging chickens to take exercise."

A Submersible Robot Dives for Steamship Gold

2004-11-16T16:16:00.000-05:00

From The New York Times:

"When the 250-foot Odyssey Explorer docked here this week to unload a trove of gold coins and valuable artifacts from the wreck of the Republic, a 19th-century steamer, the Explorer's deck was a blur of activity, bristling with the modern technology now necessary for the recovery of sunken treasure.

A seven-ton submersible robot held pride of place. Its flexible arm was equipped with tiny suction cups made of soft flexible plastic for carefully picking up rare coins that can fetch up to half a million dollars each. The robot is one example of the sophistication and technological precision of this salvage effort, which leaders say surpasses any previous shipwreck salvage."

Cyborg Geologist Explores Spanish Coluntryside

2004-11-16T11:17:00.000-05:00

rover
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

From news @ nature.com:

"European scientists have sent a 'cyborg' to roam the Spanish countryside as part of a mission to create robots that are good at exploring planets independently."

Surprise! Sony's AIBO is a dog

2004-11-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

AIBO
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

From ABC News:

After years of refusing to call its robotic entertainment devices dogs, Sony rolls out a new AIBO that could be nothing but.

AIBO is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation

RoboBar Serves It Up

2004-11-12T13:24:00.000-05:00

RoboBar
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.

From core77.com:

"The gem of this year's PackExpo in Chicago? RoboBar, a robot bartender complete with an LCD face and a tuxedo. Fancy!

As I watched it make a vodka tonic on the rocks, I began to realize that being ruled by the machines wouldn't be as bad I thought."

Segway Crushes Roomba

2004-11-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

From Slashdot:

"We all knew it would happen. We just didn't know when...At last weekend's Accelerating Change Conference, Dean Kamen's demon seed, the Segway personal transporter, met Helen Greiner's lovechild, the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, in a climactic crash that will echo through the ages. And I quote:

'That night also had what was, for me, the highlight of the conference. I refer, of course, to the ultimate convergence of technology. The perfect connection of human and robot. The consumate collision of 21st century geek products. I am referring, of course, to the moment that a Segway ran over a Roomba.' "

European scientists envisage robotic village on moon

2004-11-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

From Guardian Unlimited:

"European scientists are contemplating a 'robot village' on the lunar surface: a collection of shelters, instruments and exploration vehicles, perhaps on a ridge at the lunar south pole which is in sunlight all year round."

Nanorobotics Interview

2004-11-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

From Nanodot:

"Svidinenko Yuriy writes the Nanotechnology News Network decide to ask some questions about a new nanotechnology program - NCD (Nanorobot Control Design) simulator. We also ask some questions about nanorobotics in general.

The interview is HERE"

And a tutorial on nanorobotics is available here (PDF).

Dancing to That Robotic Engineering Beat

2004-11-09T11:45:00.000-05:00

The The New York Times profiles Princeton Professor Naomi Ehrich Leonard:

"She has been able to transcend the boundaries of her physical surroundings, as well as the traditional boundaries of her discipline, as a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. She has interwoven control theory, fluid mechanics, robotics, computer science, oceanography and biology.

Her work has shattered barriers and helped her design new sensing systems that replicate the coordinated behavior of flocks of birds and schools of fish. The advances she has made, which recently led to her being awarded a MacArthur fellowship worth $500,000, have been found to apply far beyond robotics, extending control theory to all mechanical systems."

Save Soldiers by Remote Control

2004-11-08T14:36:00.000-05:00

From Wired News:

"Unmanned aerial vehicles and other so-called 'stand-off' weapons, whether currently used or in secret testing, belong to a developing high-tech arsenal that the U.S. military says will help minimize casualties as it battles insurgents. Most of the systems are slated for continued, if not intensified, use as Iraqi forces train to take over the bulk of combat operations from the Americans -- though when that might happen remains uncertain. "

NASA Launches VC Fund

2004-11-08T14:34:00.000-05:00

SiliconBeat reports on the launch by NASA of a VC fund seeking to invest in young, privately held companies working in nanotechnology, robotics, intelligent systems and high-speed networking and communication:

"First, the CIA launched a venture capital arm in 1999. In-Q-Tel, as it was called, nestled its offices quietly amid Silicon Valley's top-tier venture firms on Sand Hill Road, and has started making money, as we reported here. Impressed with the results, the Army started a fund, and other branches started considering similar efforts.

So it's no surprise that NASA has jumped in the game. More details about the fund, which will begin to invest
during the first quarter of 2005, came from VentureWire today, which unfortunately requires a subscription. The goal is to develop technologies that will help with its missions to the moon and Mars. Congress has given it $10 million to start off with, according to one of the fund's partners, Patrick Ciganer, and budgeted $25 million over five years.

It will be called The Mercury Fund, and will be constructed along the lines of In-Q-Tel."

New vision for automation

2004-11-08T14:25:00.000-05:00

From ferret.com.au:

"MACHINE vision can offer major flexibility gains to manufacturers employing automation and robotics in their operations, but many manufacturers are shying away from the technology, having had bad experiences in the past...

Underwater Robots for Everyone

2004-11-07T14:07:00.000-05:00

From Slashdot:

"'A small 112-pound ocean glider named Spray is the first autonomous underwater vehicle to cross the Gulf Stream underwater. Launched September 11, 2004, it has been slowly making 12 miles per day measuring various properties of the ocean. Spray spent 15 minutes three times a day on the surface to relay its position and information about ocean conditions and then glided back down to 3,300-feet depth .' And reader RoboFreak writes 'Two Computer Science students at Brigham Young University-Hawaii have developed a Low Cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. "

NASA Calls for Proposals

2004-11-07T13:49:00.000-05:00

From SpaceRef:

"External organizations are sought to support Centennial Challenges (www.centennialchallenges.nasa.gov) within the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (www.exploration.nasa.gov) of NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. These organizations will help with the planning, coordination, and execution of the following elements as they relate to individual challenges...

By making awards based on actual achievements instead of proposals, Centennial Challenges seeks novel and lower-cost solutions to engineering obstacles in civil space and aeronautics from new sources of innovation in industry, academia, and the public...

Flagship Challenges under consideration by NASA include prize competitions for:

A soft robotic lunar landing,
A micro reentry vehicle,
An aero-assist demonstration, and
A station-keeping solar sail.

Keystone Challenges under consideration by NASA include: "First-to-demonstrate competitions" for:

Lightweight radiation shielding,
A mobile power storage breakthrough,
Improved and new physical and chemical lunar resource processing techniques,
An advanced astronaut glove,
An autonomous drill,
An autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for cargo,
A long-duration, station-keeping UAV, and
A hybrid airship.

"Repeatable contests" for:

Advances in materials, especially nanotube tethers;
Advances in lightweight power transmission, especially beamed power;
Advances in deployable telescope technology, especially those that could be applicable to space-based observatories;
Advances in general aviation technologies, especially those applicable to other modes of air transport;
A precision landing system;
An advanced tele-robotic construction system;
Highly mobile and cooperative autonomous robots; and
A human lunar all-terrain vehicle."

Adroit Droids

2004-10-31T16:53:00.000-05:00

From MIT Technology Review:

"After 50 years of research, scientists have yet to build a robot that can learn to manipulate new objects as proficiently as a one-year-old child. Robots don’t react well to new situations; most of their movements must be programmed in advance. Some use sensors to fine-tune their movements in real time, but they generally don’t retain and interpret the sensor data. So while they might navigate a room without bumping into things, they can’t stop to help rearrange the furniture.

But now advances in sensors, software, and computer architecture are beginning to give robots a sense of their “bodies” and of what sorts of actions are safe and useful in their environments. The results could eventually include more effective robotic assistants for the elderly and autonomous bots for exploring battlefields and space."

One Million Roomba brand vacs an Inflection Point

2004-10-29T15:53:00.000-04:00

From HiddenWires:

"In a major milestone for the consumer technology industry, iRobot has now sold more than 1 million Roomba(R) Robotic Floorvacs. A burgeoning number of robotics innovators have been inspired by the success of Roomba to move beyond the primarily theoretical applications to which robots had previously been consigned and are now beginning to create robots to help people do real tasks in the home.

'The $200 mobile robotic vacuum cleaners and other such devices that are making their way into the consumer world, signal the beginnings of the development of a new industry focused on cost-effective mobile devices that can assist and entertain us in a variety of ways,' said Strategy Analytics' Neena Buck, whose report 'Mobile Service Robots: Entering the Commercial World,' was included in the 2004 World Robotics study created by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. "

NASA testing Robot Satellite Seeker

2004-10-28T14:57:00.001-04:00

From Discovery Channel:

"A high-stakes test to determine if a robotic probe can automatically find a satellite and maneuver around it will take place next week off the California coast.

After a ride to space aboard an air-launched Pegasus rocket, NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology spacecraft will get to work. DART's mission is to see if a robot can handle a task NASA previously has trusted only to astronauts: linking up two spacecraft in orbit. "

NASA testin Robot Satellite Seeker

2004-10-28T14:57:00.000-04:00

Advent of the Robotic Monkeys

2004-10-27T16:11:00.000-04:00

Wired News

"If a monkey is hungry but has his arms pinned, there's not much he can do about it. Unless that monkey can control a nearby robotic arm with his brain.

And that's exactly what the monkey in Andrew Schwartz's neurobiology lab at the University of Pittsburgh can do, feeding himself using a prosthetic arm controlled solely by his thoughts.

If mastered, the technology could be used to help spinal cord injuries, amputees or stroke victims...

The prosthetic limb, the size of a child's arm, has working shoulder and elbow joints and is equipped with a simple gripper to grasp and hold food. The monkey's arms are restrained at its sides and as the monkey thinks about bringing the food to his mouth, electrodes in the monkey's brain intercept the neuronal firings that are taking place in the motor cortex, a region of the brain responsible for voluntary movement.

The brain activity is fed to a computer where an algorithm developed by the University of Pittsburgh interprets the neuronal messages and sends them to the robotic arm..."

Roboburgh Not Yet Reality for Western Pennsylvania

2004-10-25T17:38:00.000-04:00

From TEQ Magazine online:

Pittsburgh Region's Robotics Industry Boasts Broad Mix of Companies and Research

"Since the Wall Street Journal article in 1999 calling Pittsburgh “Roboburgh” for its local concentration of talent in robotics, many have wondered whether this might become a reality someday.

Would the city, that had been known by the nicknames Iron City and the City of Champions, one day be commonly associated with those autonomous electromechanical beings first named “robots” in a 1921 science fiction play by Czech author Karel Capek called “R.U.R.” for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”?

The verdict is still not in, but great strides in the right direction have been made in recent years. In the process, RoboBurgh has morphed into a more elongated “RoboCorridor,” extending across southwestern Pennsylvania and into West Virginia."

Boilerplate, the Victorian Robot

2004-10-22T12:12:00.000-04:00

From Patent Pending:

"For a great web site devoted to the earliest robot, be sure to see Anina Bennet's great site, which has the history of the Victorian age robot calledBoilerplate: History of a Victorian Era Robot...

' According to The Boilerplate Site, ...

'Boilerplate was a mechanical man developed by Professor Archibald Campion during the 1880s and unveiled at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Built in a small Chicago laboratory, Boilerplate was originally designed as a prototype soldier for use in resolving the conflicts of nations. Although it was the only such prototype, Boilerplate was eventually able to exercise its proposed function by participating in several combat actions. ' More great information and pictures on the site!! Hey, isn't that a Selden auto? (see the post on this site, The First American Automobile.')"

Artificial Intelligence May Aid Space Missions

2004-10-18T14:22:00.000-04:00

From space.com:

"NASA officials are reporting encouraging results from an experiment in which artificial intelligence software is being used to determine the root causes of simulated technical glitches aboard the agency’s Earth Observing-1 imaging satellite.

The software, called Livingstone, was developed by computer scientists at Ames Research Center in California. The Ames team named the software after the 19th Century explorer and doctor, David Livingstone. The version being tested on Earth Observing-1, or EO-1, is a more powerful version of the Livingstone software that was first tested successfully on NASA’s Deep Space 1 spacecraft in 1999.

Livingstone’s designers are convinced that artificial intelligence software will be the best way to prevent technical mishaps during future robotic or human missions into deep space."

ISA program to certify automation professionals

2004-10-17T16:45:00.000-04:00

From ISA:

"ISA this week launches two new certification programs offering automation and control professionals credentials confirming their knowledge, competence, and potential in a particular field to current and future employers, coworkers, and others.

With predictions that both will have 'far-reaching effects in the field of automation and control,' the two programs will officially commence Thursday at ISA EXPO 2004, when ISA's Certified Automation Professional (CAP) and Certified Industrial Maintenance Mechanic (CIMM) examinations will be offered for the first time. ISA already offers its Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST) examination."

Got Robolawyer?

2004-10-16T12:21:00.000-04:00

From Wired.com:

"I have a recurring nightmare. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shows up on my doorstep demanding my left kidney, claiming that I agreed to this in some 'clickwrap' contract. In my waking life, I am inundated with such agreements - privacy policies, downloading poliicies, security policies, software licensing agreements - all vying for my assent. As a lawyer, I write these contracts for clients, but I must confess that I never read them online. Who has the time?

Unfortunately, the law assumes we all do - and that by clicking, we are 'agreeing' to the unread privacy policy, to spyware being installed on our systems, or to pornographic pop-up ads. Almost every site has terms and conditions; as a result, regular Internet users are faced with dozens of such agreements a week. Some come in the form of the ubiquitous 'I Agree' button, others in the form of prose hidden at the bottom of the homepage under the moniker 'Legal.'

Increasingly, companies have been putting some pretty nasty things into their clickwrap agreements - such as that they can collect and sell your detailed personal information or install software that will capture your every keystroke. A few firms have you agree that, even if they violate their own promises to secure your information, you won't ever sue. This is not legal boilerplate, the kind that everybody assents to when renting a car or buying a ticket to a ball game. It affects the privacy, security, and operability of all the information you access online.

What is needed - desperately - is a law robot..."

Pittsburgh Robotics Foundry Awards Grants

2004-10-16T12:20:00.000-04:00

From prnewswire press release:

"The Robotics Foundry, an independent, non-profit economic development organization, today announced that its National Center for Defense Robotics (NCDR) operation has awarded $800,000 to several regional companies and universities to execute six, defense-related,'agile robotics' technology development and transition projects. These projects...were competitively bid and are being funded from an appropriation directed to the NCDR in the FY03 national defense spending bill."

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2004-10-10T16:29:00.000-04:00

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