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Recent articles Robo-Q Tomy's Tiny Toy Walking RobotsPosted 12 Oct 2008 at 03:34 UTC by The Swirling BrainTomy has unveiled in Japan tiny toy RC walking robots named Robo-Q. At about 3.4 centimeters (1.3 inches) high and about the size of your thumb these little guys are incredibly small and cute walking robots. Since they can be remotely controlled (see youtube video), they would be great for coffee table robot soccer matches! They also have a few IR sensors and a bit of programming to automatically navigate and solve small mazes. The current release price in Japan is about 3500 yen ($35) each and they should be released in the US soon. Read more... (0 replies)  $100K Loebner Prize Turing Test This SundayPosted 11 Oct 2008 at 03:40 UTC (updated 11 Oct 2008 at 03:47 UTC) by The Swirling BrainThe 18th annual Loebner Prize Turing contest will be held this Sunday at the University of Reading. The Loebner Prize is for $100k and a gold medal to the author of the winning computer program which can satisfy the Turing test. The Turning Test comes from Alan Turing and his notion of whether or not a computer's responses are indistinguishable from a human's responses. Turing generally wondered if a computer could actually think and came up with his ?artificial? intelligence test. Although the $100k prize has not been awarded yet, a bronze medal and $2k prize is given to the best AI contender each year. Six judges will question six computer programs behind computer screens for five minutes to try to determine if a human or a computer is behind the screen. If they can't tell that the responses come from a computer or human then the computer program has passed the Turing test. Although, many people aren't fooled by chat boxes or AIM bots, already they can be so powerful that some are easily fooled by them and even fall in love with them or are seduced by them to give up their private info. Read more... (0 replies)  Robotic Exoskeleton Available for RentalPosted 10 Oct 2008 at 21:16 UTC by jlinHAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) has been released for rental in Japan for $2,200 a month. This system, which assists those temporarily or permanently disabled people to walk upright without crutches, has progressed a lot over the years. The robotic legs listens to nerve signals from the brain and mimics the intended movements. CYBERDYNE, a new company formed to mass-produce these robotic legs, insists that their robot will only be used to help people and have refused all military-related offers for their product. Read more... (0 replies) Freaky Looking Robot Girl Repliee R-1Posted 10 Oct 2008 at 02:50 UTC (updated 11 Oct 2008 at 03:44 UTC) by The Swirling BrainJapanese scientists went and made a robot that looks like young girl. The robot Repliee R-1 looks like a five year old girl except for being freaky looking and covered in silicone skin. Few people are fooled into thinking she's real but it was made to be life-like to put people's mind at ease. I imagine something like, "Ahh! It's a Terminator robot! Oh thank goodness no, it's just a creepy looking five year old girl robot. That's not twisted at all and my mind is completely at ease now." The robot blinks and stands and wears clothes. The robot will be used for the elderly and the disabled and the article says it will also fetch objects. Read more... (0 replies)  Robots.Video: Universal Mind ControlPosted 9 Oct 2008 at 03:49 UTC by steve
From Common's album Invincible Summer comes a new track, called Universal Mind Control, whose video is loaded with robots doing dance moves. Pharrell, who appears in the video as both himself and as a red-eyed robot, is a well-known fan of science fiction in addition to being a music producer, singer, songwriter, and rapper. His record label logo incorporates the Vulcan salute from Star Trek. It would appear he is also a fan of robots. Read more... (0 replies) Random Robot RoundupPosted 8 Oct 2008 at 18:42 UTC by steveThe folks at Trossen Robotics say, "It's time again to officially announce the next round of the Trossen Robotics Community (TRC) Project Contest. With the success of last round, it was obvious many preferred the idea of offering Robots as prizes, so we're doing it again:-)". Andrew Alter of Trossen wrote to tell us about another new project they're working on: I’m spearheading a new type of humanoid combat competition for Robogames 2009 called Mech Wars (think small scale R/C MechWarrior with airsoft weapons and wireless cameras for piloting). The participants are building away trying to get their robots finished, but we have some pretty solid progress and some cool looking bots on the rise. Roschler noted that, a brand new solid review by one of the first Rovio owners has just been posted by Robots-Dreams.com. The Swirling Brain pointed out yet another story on rat brained robots, this time a NewScientist Tech article about a car navigation system inspired by rat brains. He also noticed a ZDNet article on an MIT underwater robot that moves like a helicopter. Even cooler is the UPenn robot that can resassemble itself if you kick it apart. The Brain also reported a Popular Science story about inflatable surveillance robot for Mars. Roland Piquepaille let us know about his latest blog posts on space robots, pterodactyl-inspired flying robots, and on the new MIT underwater robot that the Swirling Brain mentioned. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. Read more... (0 replies)  Robots: Swarming Autonomous Underwater VehiclesPosted 3 Oct 2008 at 12:09 UTC by mwaibelThe latest Robots podcast interviews dive into the world of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Navinda Kottege at the Robotic Systems Group of the Australian National University has been looking at how swarms of Serafina AUVs can determine their range, bearing and posture with respect to neighboring robots. Marc Sherman from Teledyne RD Instruments tells us how his Doppler Velocity Log systems are used to provide positioning for AUVs. Also in this episode, and in a first for our podcast, Robots features a short story by science fiction author Jack Graham. The "Selkies" will be following us over the next four episodes, so don't miss today's debut. Read more... (0 replies) CEATEC Japan 2008 Robot PhotosPosted 2 Oct 2008 at 18:45 UTC by steve
CEATEC is the an annual conference where exhibitors show off cutting-edge electronics and information technology. That includes a lot of robots. Pictured above are two of Nissan's BR23C Biomimetic Robots. Akihabara News covered the Nissan demonstration and posted a lot of photos of the robots in action. The bouncingredball blog got photos of the the Murata Seikochan unicycle-riding robot demonstration. And our friends over at Pink Tentacle posted an assortment of interesting CEATEC robot photos. Want to see more of CEATEC 2008? Try the steadily increasing steam of CEATEC photos on flickr. Read more... (2 replies) All Right: A Right-turning Maze-solving RobotPosted 30 Sep 2008 at 20:23 UTC by steve
Like the North-Going-Zax, David Cook's All Right robot has a very single-minded approach to navigation. While the robot can turn left when it wants to, it solves line-following mazes by making right turns whenever possible. David has posted a new article at his Robot Room describing All Right in detail with plenty of photos and video of the robot. All Right is powered by LiPoly batteries and an assortment of sensors including 9 photo detectors for floor sensing and line following, 4 more photo detectors used as quadrature encoders, a battery voltage sensor and an assortment of pushbuttons. Read more... (0 replies)  Micro Turbine Developed at University of MarylandPosted 29 Sep 2008 at 18:41 UTC by steve
We've reported on micro and nano sized turbines in the past and today they look one step closer to reality. The University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering MEMS Sensors and Acturators Lab issued a press release detailing their latest work, including a microscale pump and turbogenerator. Researcher Reza Ghodssi said, "for the first time, we have achieved a level of miniaturization for machines like that achieved over the last decades in electronics". The tiny turbine achieves rotational speeds of 87,000 RPM, supported on micro-ball bearings so small they're almost invisible to the naked eye. The US Army, which is funding the research, hopes micro-turbines will replace the 20lbs of bulky lithium ion batteries now carried by soldiers. The tiny generators could also power micro air vehicles (MAV), small UAVs, and other pint-sized robots. UMD has also released video of the turbine in action (MPEG format). For all the technical stuff, see the paper, Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of a Rotary Micromotor Supported on Microball Bearings (PDF format). Read more... (0 replies) Random Robot RoundupPosted 26 Sep 2008 at 19:16 UTC by steveDan Gates sent a Technology Review article on the UMan robot (for more see our previous coverage of UMan and other gripping robots). Amy McKinzie let us know that NBC has used to refurbished industrial robots from her company in the new Knight Rider TV series. The folks at the RoboDevelopment Conference announced the finalists for their annual Innovator Awards and the OpenJAUS free software architecture, which we reported on a while back has made their list. Trossen Robotics let us know that they've launched a new Educational Robotics Division that will carry robot kits specifically tailored for classroom use. Chris Bruner told us about a paintball robot sentry that weighs in at 10lbs and cost less than $500. David Calkins brings news from the world of orgasmotrons and teledildonics, where the ARSE ELEKTRONIKA 2008 conference will explore the intersection of sex and technology. The PC/104 consortium announced approval of the EPIC Express specification, adding stackable PCI Express support to future PC/104 boards. Roland Piquepaille posted in his blog about robot gas stations in the sky and ship-cleaning robots. And from the Swirling Brain come stories of robots on unicycles (with video), airbags for old people, a list of history's greatest robot hoaxes, info on the WowWee Bladestar autonomous indoor flying robot, and a Wired article on robot hands. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. Read more... (0 replies) First user created Spykee video on YouTubePosted 25 Sep 2008 at 04:01 UTC by roschler
The Meccano Spykee spy robot is finding its way into the hands of users in the United Kingdom. This is the robot that Meccano claims can be controlled from a remote Skype video call session while Skype streams audio and video to you across the connection. The first Spykee owner video was posted today by biker blogger Sven. The 8 minute video shows in detail Spykee's interface and it's various capabilities including the robot navigation controls, audio effects, sound effects and more. There's plenty of point of view footage as he drives Spykee around the house while showing you the video feed in the software interface's video window. If you have trouble setting up the WiFi link to Skype another YouTube video shows you how. Robot tinkerers will be excited by the Spykee because it is compatible with the Erector set of parts. Also, there is a .NET API that is claimed to allow you to write your own software around the Spykee robot. Originally Meccano said that the software was going to be open source so it is not clear if this is a step backward from open source to a simple API. Only time will tell. Read more... (0 replies) ROBO-ONE Helper Competition ReportPosted 24 Sep 2008 at 15:54 UTC by steve
Norri Kageki writes, "Thank you very much for picking up the ROBO-ONE Helper Robot Project on your robot competition FAQ. I did go see the competition and you can read an update in my blog". Norri has posted a detailed, four part blog post with video and photos of the ROBO-ONE Helper event, in which humanoid robots had to walk around in a real shopping mall and attempt to make purchases of real products from real vendors. While the robots were teleoperated over a WiFi link and not autonomous, the exercise shows what the hardware is capable of. The video included here shows Aero-Blue, a robot developed by Team CAP Project, as it pushes a shopping cart and purchases a white purse. Be sure to check out Norri's blog to see lots more photos and videos of the other winning robots. Read more... (0 replies)  Human Memory Capacity is Larger than ExpectedPosted 23 Sep 2008 at 16:21 UTC by steve
According to an MIT news release, cognitive neuroscientists studying human memory capacity and visual memory have discovered that the brain's ability to store information is "much higher than previously believed or shown". The researchers showed a series of 2,500 images to test subjects for 3 seconds each. Later, they were show pairs of very similar images and asked which they had seen earlier. The researchers were surprised to see recall rates as high as 92 percent. Timothy Brady, one of the researchers, said, "To give just one example, this means that after having seen thousands of objects, subjects didn't just remember which cabinet they had seen, but also that the cabinet door was slightly open". While we still don't know the total memory capacity of the human brain, the researchers were able to prove that the minimum amount of long term storage needed to for test subject's performance would be 228,000 bits. So, if we're burning up 28 kB of memory for simple tasks, the total amount available must be significantly larger than any previous estimates. Big changes are needed to existing cognitive models to account for this and there may be implications in AI research as well. For more details including samples of the image sets used, visit the MIT Massive Memory website and read the full paper, Visual long-term memory has a massive storage capacity for object details (PDF format). Read more... (0 replies)  Low-Cost 3D Stereo Vision for RobotsPosted 22 Sep 2008 at 19:59 UTC (updated 22 Sep 2008 at 20:04 UTC) by steve
Cathy Caplener writes, "Just a quick note to let you know that Surveyor Corporation today introduced the industry’s first low-cost, $500, 3D Stereo Vision System, now soon to be known as the Surveyor SVS, for robotics and the Web. I do not like to say things like “the first” but we are saying it because it is true of course and quite exciting for the industry because as you know, working with robots is not a cheap endeavor." The SVS sensor is based on firmware released as free software under the GNU GPL. Schematics and other documentation are available on the Surveyor SVS website. Read on for the full text of the press release and photos of the new stereo vision sensor. Read more... (0 replies) Stanford Offering Free Robotics Engineering CoursesPosted 19 Sep 2008 at 20:31 UTC by steveSeveral readers sent links about Stanford Engineering's SEE program, which is offering free (as in free beer) online robotics and AI engineering courses under a Creative Commons license. So far, they're offering Introduction to Robotics, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning. They also offer courses in Fourier Transform and Linear Systems. Stanford is the latest school to follow the lead of MIT's Open CourseWare and CMU's open learning initiative, other programs which apply open source concepts to education. For more see the Stanford Engineering press release as well as Slasdot and DeviceGuru stories on the Stanford news. Read more... (0 replies)  The True History of the CylonsPosted 18 Sep 2008 at 17:37 UTC by steveThe Darth Mojo blog has posted an excellent history of the Battlestar Galactica Cylons, revealing where the really came from. "There are those who believe that the Cylons were created by man. Some believe that they were created by a race of highly advanced lizards who used them as foot soldiers in the war to exterminate humanity." Not so, says Darth Mojo, they really came from designer and illustrator Andrew Probert, based on idea from Star Wars designer Ralph McQuarrie. The article includes lots of illustrations showing early ideas and proposals for the original robots as well as a never before seen look at what Probert might have designed if he'd been in charge of updating their look. Read more... (0 replies) I2C Tutorial for Robot BuildersPosted 17 Sep 2008 at 15:12 UTC by steveI2C is a multi-master serial bus that's very common on microcontrollers and can be used by a robot builder to attach sensors or actuators, or as a communications channel between multiple processors. The uC Hobby blog has posted a good introduction to I2C by Grinan Barrett that includes examples, schematics, and source code for working with the I2C bus. In addition to taking the reader through his own experiences, there are also links to FAQs and other sites with additional information. Read more... (1 reply) Random Robot RoundupPosted 16 Sep 2008 at 20:05 UTC by steveThe Trossen Robotics Team writes, "We haven't even announced the new TRC Project Contest, yet our creative members are already entering some incredible projects!" Behold the Lego NTX Autonomous Wall-E Robot. Robots.net reader Bill Rogers sent us a Slate story on robots replacing human umpires and referees in sports and a Reuters video about an exoskeleton for paraplegics. Johan Tegin let us know about KTHand, a project to develop a cost efficient robotic hand for research use. We also heard from Honey and Dick, two robots from the future who like music and beam a podcast into the past as a science project. So, if you're looking for a podcast of independent music hosted by two cantankerous and possibly offensive robots, check out Jukebox Review. The Swirling Brain let us know about a pool playing robot, a robotic bicycle parking garage, a slashdot article on the Willow Garage open source humanoid robot, a 50ft robot spider, a Wired update on Stanford's robot chopper, and a robot that feels without touching. Roland Piquepaille sent links to his latest blog posts on robot phriends, robotic tuna, and robot rats. Know any other robot news, gossip, or amazing facts we should report? Send 'em our way please. Read more... (0 replies) Robots One of Six Disruptive TechnologiesPosted 15 Sep 2008 at 16:29 UTC by steveA Computerworld article notes robots as one of six disruptive technologies that intelligence officials will warn the next president about. Their upcoming report is expected to be similar to the disruptive civil technologies report issued by National Intelligence Council in April. Among the major points are that most of the building blocks needed for robots are in place now including sensors, actuators, and power systems. Software is reaching the point where autonomous vehicular applications are possible. They note the near term possibilities of soldiers augmented by robotic exoskeletons, the possibility that terrorists will make use of robots designed for commercial civil jobs, and the longer term possibility for social disruption as robots begin to work side-by-side with humans in jobs like elder-care. More details can be found in the report's Service Robot appendix (PDF format). The appendix notes that Japan currently leads in robot technology with the US in second place, and the EU in third. There are also specific predictions that are a bit amusing like "2011 - WowWee releases Robosapien v10, a toy robot that can recognize and fetch items belonging to the user from around the home". Read more... (0 replies) |
