Robots: From Animals to Automation

Posted 3 Jul 2009 at 14:12 UTC by mwaibel

Over the past years the Bionic Learning Network, a consortium of universities, institutes and development companies run by German automation giant Festo, has been turning out impressive robotic artifacts. Festo thinks of robots like the AquaPenguin, AquaRay and AquaJelly pictured above as technology demonstrators that help identify bionic principles. These principles in turn may be applicable in their next generation of automation products. In the latest episode of the Robots podcast, Markus Fischer, head of the Bionic Learning Network project and head of Festo's Corporate Design explains how Festo transfers technologies from biomimetic research to actual products. In the second part of this episode Victor Zykov, very well known for his work on Resilient Introspective Machines with Hod Lipson, talks more about the role of bio-inspiration as well as his favorite topic, modular robots. Zykov explains his work on his bio-inspired Molecubes (see some previous posts), and tells us how Festo may use modular robots to construct the adaptable factories of the future. Tune in!

Read more... (0 replies)

EU Creates Self-Tuning Compiler

Posted 2 Jul 2009 at 16:10 UTC by steve

Robots use all kinds of embedded processors. New processors are being created all the time. Writing software for all those processors requires a compiler and the most commonly used compiler is GNU GCC, originally created by Richard Stallman that made the Free Software and Open Source movements possible. The trouble is, a lot of work is involved in optimizing a complex compiler like GCC for every new processor that turns up. What if we could use AI and machine learning techniques to do all that work? This idea was explored by a group of EU research organizations. The result is MILEPOST GCC 4.4.0, the first machine learning enabled, self-tuning compiler that can adapt to any architecture using an iterative feedback-directed process. From the IBM press release:

Initial IBM experiments conducted on IBM System p servers achieved an average 18 percent performance improvement on embedded-application benchmarks...it normally takes application developers many months to get their software running at an acceptable level of performance. Milepost GCC can reduce the amount of time it takes to reach that level by a factor of 10.

The diagram above compares a block diagram of the current GCC with MILEPOST GCC. At present MILEPOST GCC is a research compiler only but because it's Free Software, you can download MILEPOST GCC, use it, study it, and even modify the code if you wish. To make modification easier, the researchers have also created a plugin API called the Interactive Compilation Interface (ICI). For more on how the machine learning process works, visit the MILEPOST website. You can learn a lot about what's going on by reading the MILEPOST FAQ. There is also a mailing list for those who'd like to join the development project and help work on this new generation of intelligent self-tuning compilation tools.

Read more... (0 replies)

Robots Monitor the Melting Arctic

Posted 1 Jul 2009 at 16:41 UTC by steve

Earlier this year NOAA warned that increased global warming was combining with natural variability in the Arctic and could result in an ice-free Arctic in as little as 30 years, rather than the end of the century as predict by earlier models. This has created a sense of urgency among organizations studying the changes. NOAA and NASA have combined forces with Northrop Grumman to create a specially modified Global Hawk UAV that will make 6 long duration missions over the Arctic and the Pacific ocean to collect data in troposphere and lower stratosphere. The Global Hawk is an autonomous robot that can stay aloft for 31 hours at altitudes up to 65,000 feet. NASA is also using a UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) to create highly detailed Arctic ice maps:

Using these data, scientists would also be able to measure the speed, direction and topographic height of ice caps whose sub-glacial bedrock topography is already mapped – thereby providing critical information that can be used to improve models of glacier mechanics.

Meanwhile, Seaglider robots have been deployed off Greenland to make more accurate measurements of Arctic sea currents. Scientist believe the Arctic runoff is already altering the density of sea water in the Labrador Sea, driving critical ocean circulation that affects the global climate. We mentioned last month that another seaglider project has resulted in a new understanding of ocean circulation that should significantly improve the accuracy of climate models. Canada is also deploying two AUVs to scan the seabed to further their claims in the coming UN Convention that will determine which nations get sovereign rights to the new ocean areas forming as the Arctic melts.

Read more... (0 replies)

Senario: Pleo is Alive and Well

Posted 30 Jun 2009 at 16:02 UTC by steve

We reported in April that the creator of the Pleo robot dinosaur, Ugobe, Inc., filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving the future of the Pleo in doubt. Then we got some good news in June when Jetta, the Chinese company who manufactured the Pleo robots for Ugobe, announced they had bought the rights to the robot and would continue building them. This left only the question of immediate availability. Would Pleos continue to be sold in the US? Megan Lawler writes:

You will be happy to know that our beloved Pleo has been and still is very much available here in the U.S. thanks to consumer electronics and entertainment leader, Senario. We are currently servicing the market with our inventory. We do buy various products from Jetta and of course they manufactured our current inventory. Should Senario continue with new manufactured product, Jetta will indeed be the manufacturer.

Megan goes on to say that you can buy a Pleo today at Botabingbotaboom.com [$299], Target.com [$349], BestBuy.com [not in online catalog], and, of course Amazon.com [$157]. The Amazon price looks pretty good but their prices fluctuate frequently so your mileage may vary.

Read more... (0 replies)

Bored Mars Robot Turns to Star Gazing

Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 19:24 UTC by steve

For those who haven't kept up with the NASA Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, here's the situation. Both rovers are still going but dust accumulations on the solar panels have limited their power. To make matters worse, Spirit became stuck on the side of a sand dune. NASA engineers are making elaborate efforts to free the rover, including creating an exact simulation of the Martial soil. In the meantime, a freak wind gust has purged most of the dust from the robot's solar panels, giving it more power than it's had in years. With all that extra power and no where to go, scientists decided to try some astronomical observations. The first result is shown above, a view of the night sky from sol 1943 (June 22 Earth time). Most of what you see are not stars, just hot pixels. The bright streak on the left is Canopus. To eliminate the noise and make the stars stand out, engineers plan to combine multiple exposures on future attempts. They also hope to capture images of Earth and Venus in the twilight sky. For more see the detailed story by Nancy Atkinson in Universe Today. I've included a few other recent photos from Spirit after the break. For even more images visit the Spirit raw image repository for over 100,000 photos from the Mars rover.

Read more... (0 replies)

Robots Sing Happy Birthday to UK Science Museum

Posted 27 Jun 2009 at 19:04 UTC by steve

Peer Lawther writes, "you kindly wrote about the BERTI robot (Another Breakthrough in Rock, Paper, Scissors) a few months ago; many thanks for doing this. We have now uploaded two follow up robotics videos, this time based on the work of Professor Eduardo Miranda at the Interdisplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at Plymouth (UK) university and the Science Museum". The first video, seen above, shows robots singing "Happy Birthday" to the Science Museum. The museum is 100 years old. After the break is the second video, and possible the more interesting one. It's shows the three autonomous, intelligent robots learning to sing through a process in which they evolve their own unique musical languages.

Read more... (0 replies)

Random Robot Roundup

Posted 26 Jun 2009 at 14:45 UTC by steve

I hope it's not too soon for another roundup because our mailbox is overflowing. Props to Geekdad at Wired for including us in his list of 52 Robot Geeks on Twitter. Wired also posted an interesting article suggesting birds may be able to see magnetic fields thanks to some quantum mechanics going on in their eyes. Based on Roger Ebert's review, the new Transformers movie is for the birds too. He describes the movie as "a horrible experience of unbearable length". Add that to the new Terminator on the robot movies that suck list. On the other hand, at least one fan likes Transformers enough to build a full-size Bumble Bee in his front yard. But that pales in comparison to the full-size 59 foot Gundam that now stands over Tokyo. John Palmisano sent us video of smaller combat robots fighting it out at RoboGames 2009. More peaceful robots were the subject of several recent 'The Future and You' podcasts featuring our friend Tom Atwood of Robot Magazine. Finally, Stephen Hsu discusses Bruce Charlton's recent essay on the question, "Why are modern scientists so dull?" (PDF format). Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. And don't forget to follow us on twitter.

Read more... (1 reply)

Cute Japanese Robot Makes Coffee

Posted 25 Jun 2009 at 03:55 UTC by jlin

A little robot named Hina (meaning young chick) has become very popular through the Japanese video sharing community, Nico Nico Douga. The video shows a 36 centimeter tall robot modeled after a young girl, grinding beans and pouring ingredients to make coffee. Created by mujaki, she was built largely out of modified parts from KHR-2HV, a robot kit made by KONDO.

Read more... (0 replies)

Pololu 3pi : the 10,000 Mile Review

Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 21:34 UTC by steve

I think this review marks some kind of record for how extensively we've tested a hardware product. Normally, when we receive a piece of hardware here at robots.net, we give a brief evaluation and write a basic review of it. So when Pololu sent a 3pi robot in late 2008, I expected to write and post a quick review. As it has turned out, here it is June of 2009 and the 3pi has been more thoroughly field tested than any other robot we've worked with. We've had way too much fun with this little robot and by the time you finish reading the review, you'll probably want to buy one or two for yourself. Read on for all the details as well as loads of photos.

Read more... (0 replies)

Forbes AI Report: Gigadeath to the Artilects!

Posted 23 Jun 2009 at 16:25 UTC by steve

Forbes has posted a huge, mixed bag of interesting articles on AI and robots. They're calling it their AI Report. David Gelernter contributes the article, "What Happened to Theoretical AI". There are also articles from AGI folks, like Ben Goertzel's "AI And What To Do About It" which offers career advice for humans planning to live through the singularity. Even more loaded with singularity buzzwords is The Coming Artilect War by Hugo de Garis where you can read about artilect gods, Cosmists, Terrans, and Cyborgists duking it out in a post singularity world:

I see a war coming, the "Artilect War," not between the artilects and human beings, as in the movie Terminator, but between the Terrans, Cosmists and Cyborgists. This will be the worst, most passionate war that humanity has ever known ... There will be gigadeath

Maybe it's me but I keep expecting Xenu to get involved in all that gigadeath. Obviously, Hugo is as pessimistic about the singularity as Ray Kurzweil is optimistic. If reading singularity proselytes is more than you can take, there are plenty of other articles more grounded in science and philosophy such as The Ethical War Machine by Patrick Lin which addresses the legal and technical challenges of miltary robots; and Who Needs Humanoids by Helen Greiner who points out that when the first Roomba owners provided feedback, they weren't saying "I wish my Roomba was more human-like", they were saying "I wish my Roomba did a better job of cleaning the floor". Judea Pearl offers an article called "Giving Computers Free Will" but it turns out he believes free will is an illusion (as always, I recommend the more coherent explanation of free will offered by Daniel Dennett in Freedom Evolves).

Read more... (4 replies)

Human vs Robot Space Exploration

Posted 22 Jun 2009 at 18:21 UTC by steve

The debate over human vs robot space exploration continues. The last time this issue made news was in 2006 with the death of long time opponent of human space exploration, James Van Allen. Opponents argue that the only purpose of space exploration is to return data to Earth, something they argue can be done by robots more cost effectively than by humans. No one seriously argues that robots should not explore space and there is a long history of successful robotic space exploration. Proponents of human exploration simply disagree that robots alone are sufficient. The latest dust up occurred recently with Stephen Hawking's call for Human colonies on the Moon and Mars. The point Hawking makes is that robotic exploration doesn't expand the human race beyond the planet Earth:

"Robotic missions are much cheaper and may provide more scientific information, but they don't catch the public imagination in the same way, and they don't spread the human race into space, which I'm arguing should be our long-term strategy. If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Hawking points out that if we devote only one quarter of one percent of the world's GDP toward space exploration and colonization, it would give us a budget 20 times that currently allocated to the International Space Station. One problem may be NASA itself. Scientists within the agency itself have argued that NASA's current human space flight program is an expensive, misguided boondoggle. Now the Obama administration has intervened and may force them to drop Ares to work on a more sensible alternative to get humans back into space. Meanwhile, space robots soldier on. The Japanese Kaguya probe recorded it's final approach to a Lunar impact and the NASA LRO, pictured above, was successfully launched days ago and started it journey towards the Moon.

Read more... (0 replies)

Random Robot Roundup

Posted 19 Jun 2009 at 23:44 UTC by steve

Worried about super smart killer robots taking over the world? No need, says Francis X Govers III; claims that machines will surpass human brain power any time soon are "complete and utter BS". On the other hand, the Swirling Brain sent a link to the latest killer robot designs the Air Force is working on for urban warfare, such as kamikaze insect UAVs that will land on an enemy sniper's neck and explode. And that brings us to the latest news from DIY Drones; version 2.2 of ArduPilot, the open source AUV software is out. If you don't want your flying robot to crash, you'll also want to get all those resister values right and the ucHobby blog offers help in the form of a handy new online resister color code chart. Further afield, robots.net user montesns sent a link to Honda's new 3D Asimo website. And in the UK, the Shadow Robot Company is involved in two new research programs: one called HANDLE and another called PV-S aimed at robots for cleaning solar panels. Dr. Seth Quartey let us know about his website showcasing ads from Universities all over the world offering robotics academic and research programs. In news from beyond the Earth, robots are shaping up to be key players in the latest shuttle mission to the ISS, which also includes installation of the COLBERT hardware for the humans. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. And don't forget to follow us on twitter.

Read more... (0 replies)

Robots: Celebrity Robots Brought to Life

Posted 19 Jun 2009 at 09:33 UTC by mwaibel

Science fiction movie and television icon Robby the Robot from the 1956 movie The Forbidden Planet has entered many hearts (and Top 10 lists). The latest episode of the Robots podcast interviews Fred "Robotman" Barton, who restored the original Robby, and whose company is the exclusive manufacturer and licensee for Robby and many other well known movie robots. Barton specializes on life-size computerized replicas, including those of the original Star Wars Trilogy droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, Robot Model B9 from Lost in Space, Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, Maria from Metropolis, the Target Earth robot, or the T2-Endoskeleton. In the interview he describes his work with Robby and other robot collectibles and shares his experience with robots and Hollywood - tune in, or participate in the contest to win a DVD or bluray of your favorite movie robot.

Read more... (0 replies)

Robots.Video: A Vintage Robo Alpha Performance

Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 21:02 UTC by steve

This impressive display of chaotic robotic noise is from a 1999 Detroit performance of experimental noise artist Government Alpha (performing as alter-ego ROBO-ALPHA). Government Alpha aptly describes itself as Yasutoshi Yoshida's "Experimental Harsh Noise" project on their myspace page. If you'd like to hear more harsh noise, check out Government Alpha's CDs or you might be interested in the "Extreme Music From Japan" compilation CD (1995) from Susan Lawly (described as "a very good representation of the finest noise Japan has to offer"). The YouTube video has collected a small but extreme range of comments from, "I want to be a robot when I grow up" to "the most ridiculous waste of human energy I've ever witnessed". Depending on your personal proclivities, you may want to either increase your volume to maximum or mute it altogether before clicking the play button. You have been warned. Props to our friends at Pink Tentacle for bringing this noise to our attention.

Read more... (0 replies)

Can the Death of Robots Teach us about Life?

Posted 17 Jun 2009 at 16:26 UTC by steve

Can robots or other forms of artificial life teach us anything about life and death? This question is pondered by researcher Carlos Gershenson in his short but interesting essay, "What Does Artificial Life Tell Us About Death?" (PDF format). Death occurs when an organism loses the particular organization that allows the process we call life to occur. Take a living organism, put it in a blender, and a few minutes later you will have exactly the same molecules but with a different organization. The living organism now exists only as a description to third person observers. Gershenson notes:

When the bits describing the organization of the organism are erased, the only place where the organism prevails is in the observer. The same is for robots. The same is for animals. The same is for humans.

Some artificial life, such as digital organisms, can be backed up or saved and then recreated with the same organization. The same may be true for wet alife such as protocells. "If we can create again a living system with the same organization", Gershenson asks, "did it die in the first place?" He goes on to provide speculation on possible definitions of death that correspond to specific views of life. Robotologists will note that he fails to mention the possibility of robot hell or silicon heaven.

Read more... (0 replies)

Linux-based Autonomous RoboCar from Pino Creator

Posted 16 Jun 2009 at 18:07 UTC by steve

ZMP, the Japanese company that created the open hardware Pino humanoid robot, has announced a Linux and AMD-Geode based RoboCar (PDF format). The 6 lbs, 17 inch long RoboCar is 1/10 the size of a real car. It's intended for use as a test platform for autonomous car technologies. While it looks like it's made from RC car parts, the company claims the maneuvering accuracy is much higher than possible with toy cars. The hardward includes an AMD Geode LX800 processor running a soft real-time GNU/Linux system. Other goodies include WiFi 802.11b/g/n, stereo CCD cameras, gyroscope, 3 accelerometers, encoders for all wheels and the drive motor, 8 IR sensors, and a laser range finder. The basic hardware will set you back $7000 USD plus another $4,000 USD for the vision module. For more details, see the RoboCar brochure (PDF format, Japanese). Also, see some nice YouTube video of RoboCar in action break. via LinuxDevices.com

Read more... (0 replies)

DEKA Prosthetic Arm Funded for 3 More Years by VA

Posted 15 Jun 2009 at 19:08 UTC (updated 16 Jun 2009 at 03:11 UTC) by steve

The US Department of Veterans Affairs announced another 3 years of funding for the DEKA Prosthetic Arm (aka the "Luke" arm). The 18 DOF robotic arm includes actuated fingers and can be controlled via a foot-operated joystick, shoulder-operated joystick, or myoelectric switches operated by brain implulses. We last mentioned the DEKA Luke arm when it completed a two year DARPA trial period. The DEKA in the name comes from "DEan KAmen" and the "Luke" designation is a Star Wars reference. The new work will be funded by the VA's Prosthetics and Sensory Aids Service. The video clip above shows the DEKA arm in action under the control of the myoelectric interface which allows the patient to control it with their brain using residual nerves.

Read more... (1 reply)

Evidence of Language Influencing Thought

Posted 12 Jun 2009 at 18:55 UTC by steve

The 19th century Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that ideas inherent in human languages might influence or limit human thought, has spawned a wide range of claims, some little more than urban legend; like the claim that the Inuit have hundreds of words for snow (they don't, Inuit has a half-dozen words for snow, that's fewer than English, and there's no evidence they think differently about snow than we do). In the 1960s researchers began to formulate tests of the hypothesis and learned language was more universal than relative, leading them to largely abandon the hypothesis. In recent years, though, advances in cognitive science have made it possible to spot experimental differences that might have been missed before. So is there any real evidence now that language influences thought? A new Edge article by Lera Boroditsky say yes. Boroditsky researches cognitive science and symbolic systems - thought and language. She claims to have found solid evidence in Pormpuraaw, an Aboriginal community in Australia:

the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use cardinal-direction terms — north, south, east, and west — to define space. This is done at all scales, which means you have to say things like "There's an ant on your southeast leg" or "Move the cup to the north northwest a little bit." ... The result is a profound difference in navigational ability and spatial knowledge between speakers of languages that rely primarily on absolute reference frames (like Kuuk Thaayorre) and languages that rely on relative reference frames (like English).

She goes on to describe how the researchers tested whether these differences were actually caused by the language or some other aspect of the culture. While these sorts of cognitive differences may not be as significant as early proponents of the "language defines thought" concept imagined, Lera Boroditsky makes the case that they are both real and testable. This is certainly something to think about when designing machines that will think and use language.

Read more... (0 replies)

The Willow Garage Robot Opens Up and Plugs In

Posted 11 Jun 2009 at 19:20 UTC (updated 12 Jun 2009 at 13:37 UTC) by steve

We've mentioned Willow Garage before. They're a robot startup company founded by one of the original Google designers. They're developing PR2, a robot they hope will lay the groundwork for future, commercially produced personal robots. They've just reached "milestone 2" in their R&D plan. PR2 has succeeded in completing a test run through a crowded office environment that included human obstacles. The robot was able to open and pass through eight conventional doors and plug itself into nine different standard AC power outlets. The video above shows a time lapse of the test run which took nearly an hour to complete.

For Milestone 2, our tester designated ten different outlets that the robot was required to plug into, although only nine of the selected outlets were physically reachable. The robot was expected to successfully detect that one of its ten goal outlets was behind a locked door, abort that effort, and move on to its next outlet. The rest of the doors were placed in various states of closed, partially opened, and fully open.

In addition to the PR2 hardware Willow Garage is developing software called ROS (Robot Operating System), a low-level control library for robots. Despite the name, ROS actually lives on top of a conventional Unix-style OS such as GNU/Linux. ROS is Open Source software, licensed under the BSD license (so it also meets the definition of Free Software).

Read more... (4 replies)

Resonate Robot Predicts Human Behavior

Posted 10 Jun 2009 at 16:03 UTC by steve

The EU Joint-Action Science and Technology project (JAST) is developing robots that can engage in joint activities with humans or other robots, to complete tasks through teamwork. Their latest demonstration (see video above) shows their progress with a robot that observes and predicts a human working on a project. The robot identifies the components the human is using and the likely result of assembling the components. The robot then assists the human with the work, locating parts as they are needed, and providing them to the human. The idea is to give robot the capacity for "observation and mirroring (resonance)". Wolfram Erlhagen explains:

In our experiments the robot is not observing to learn a task. The JAST robots already know the task, but they observe behaviour, map it against the task, and quickly learn to anticipate [partner actions] or spot errors when the partner does not follow the correct or expected procedure.”

Their work is interesting because they're addressing prediction of human behavior at a higher cognitive level than other robotics projects have attempted. For more see the JAST news release.

Read more... (0 replies)