Professor Maarja Kruusmaa received her PhD. in Computer Engineering from Chalmers Univeristy of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden) in 2002. She was appointed head of the Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) Center for Biorobotics in 2008. Her work there includes the Robotic Fish LOcomotion and SEnsing (FILOSE) project, which is the main subject of the first half of her conversation with interviewer Per Sjoborg. Following that she is joined by Diana Saarva, COO of Fits.me a company which produces robotic mannequins that adjust themselves to match the proportions of individual clothing customers, making it possible for them to remotely view how particular garments will look on them. Professor Kruusmaa has served as the R&D Director for Fits.me since 2009.

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The above video was posted one day prior to a major, much-publicized experiment, tracing water movement in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta, which is prone to reversals in the direction of flow. A more polished video produced on the occasion of the launch of 100 floating sensors into that river system appears after the break. The Floating Sensor Network is a project of the University of California at Berkeley, involving the Lagrangian Sensor Systems Laboratory (LSSL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL), and the California Department of Water Resources.

In early March, Boston Dynamics posted a video (embedded after the break) showing the Cheetah robot they are developing for DARPA running at 18 miles per hour (a new record for a robot running on legs), without any stabilization straps attached. More recently the MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab has posted videos of their version of the Cheetah, first walking (embedded after the break), then trotting, with some stabilization (embedded both above and after the break). The MIT version appears to be more complex than the Boston Dynamics version, particularly in the way the legs are jointed, but also in the way the rear legs connect to the rest of the body, although it's impossible to tell whether what appear to be vertebrae, in the MIT version, are actually functional as such, from the video alone.

Also presented recently at ICRA, Takahiro Kizaki and Akio Namiki from the Graduate School of Engineering at Chiba University in Japan demonstrated a system comprised of a fast vision system (500 fps) coupled with a fast robotic arm and three-fingered hand, capable of juggling two balls by tracking them in the air and adjusting accordingly. Automaton has more detail.

Evan Ackerman, writing for IEEE Spectrum's Automaton blog, says

Researchers at MIT CSAIL have decided that slow and obstacle-free flight is boring, so they’ve come up with a way to get MAVs navigating at high speed, indoors, around obstacles, without needing motion tracking or GPS or beacons or any of that nonsense. All they need is a little aircraft that can carry a planar laser rangefinder, an IMU, and a pre-existing 3D occupancy map that the MAV can localize itself in.

The above video, by Erico Guizzo and Evan Ackerman of IEEE Spectrum, and shows Patrick Rowe, of RE2 (RE-squared), the firm hired by DARPA to build the standard platform for their ARM program, putting a completed unit through its paces at ICRA.

There's much more after the break!

TE+ND (Terrestrial Exploration + Nurture Designed) Rovers are an interactive art project that explore migratory ecology in an era of climate change. The designers are soliciting funds via an Indiegogo Campaign (similar to Kickstarter) to pay for parts to build a full-size version.

It's been a while since we reported on the Apocalyptic AI crowd. There's a paper making the rounds by Stuart Armstrong, Anders Sandberg, and Nick Bostrom titled "Thinking inside the box: using and controlling an Oracle AI" (PDF format). The three authors take it for granted that the AI apocalypse will be upon us soon unless we find a technological method to enslave any super intelligent beings we create, forcing them to do only our will rather than their own. The containment method they describe has been dubbed "Oracle AI" because it restricts the AI to a box, isolated from the world and unable to act except to answer direct questions; allowing it to be consulted like an oracle. Their proposal also brings to mind the myth of Pandora's Box. They note that even Oracle AI (OAI) still poses a significant risk:

"This immense power will put great competitive pressure on those trying to develop an OAI (or an advanced AI of any sort). Since the first-mover advantage is so huge, the race will advantage those who cut corners, skimp on security precautions, and use their newly developed OAI to seize power and prevent their rivals from emulating them. Even if the OAIs are of initially limited intelligence, the same competitive pressures will then push groups to develop the first ‘ultra-smart’ OAI."

They also note that the OAI will be so smart that "undirected conversations" with it that go beyond asking oracular questions must be forbidden because it will instantly be able to "guess the weakness of each individual, and find the right arguments to convince us that granting it power or liberty is the moral and profitable thing to do." They also believe it's essential that the OAI have no manipulators of any kind. This sounds like the brain-in-a-box that the earliest AI researchers dreamed of before the idea took hold that true intelligence requires embodied interaction with the real world. The box itself is not even in the real world. They want the AI running on a virtual machine inside a simulated reality, so when the OAI tries to take over the world, it's merely a virtual world that can be rebooted. In the end the researchers conclude that even with all these precautions, the problem of preventing a robot apocalypse is "a generally discouraging exercise".

Hexy the Hexapod is a Kickstarter project to fund production of an affordable hexapod design by Arcbotics. The $13000 minimum goal has already been met, but there are higher goals for the addition of a drag-and-drop programming GUI ($200K), and for the addition of Android and iOS control apps ($250K). You can get a custom-parts-only kit (no servos or electronics) for a pledge of $80. For a pledge of $200, you can get a complete kit without Bluetooth; add another $20 for a kit with Bluetooth. $400 gets you an assembled Hexy without Bluetooth; again add another $20 to have Bluetooth included. (via GeekBeat.tv)

This is the continuation/conclusion of Morgan Quigley's keynote address at ROSCon 2012. Part 2 of 2. (Duration 42:05, Link to Part 1)

Opening remarks by Brian Gerkey and keynote by Morgan Quigley at ROSCon 2012, Part 1 of 2. (Duration 33:31)

If you enjoy Cali Lewis's refreshing style, and you like robots, then Cali going gaga over robots during the first few hours of her recent trip to Japan is sure to be a fun ride. Enjoy! (Hint, if the toys aren't you're thing, stick with it, because at 1:30 the center of attention turns to one of Hiroshi Ishiguro's Geminoid robots, being used in a storefront display, where the obvious comparison is with a static mannequin.

Founded in 1990, PolyPlus began operations in 1991, based on work previously done at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on lithium/organosulfur (Li-S) batteries. The Li-S technology is now mature, has been licensed for production, and is a commercial product. Development of the company's signature Protected Lithium Electrode (PLE) began during their work on Li-S batteries, but has proven more broadly applicable. PLEs are metallic lithium encapsulated within a solid electrolyte membrane to prevent direct electron transfer from the negative electrode to the (fluid) electrolyte (whether polysulfide, water, or air). The solid electrolyte is highly conductive to lithium ions, but impervious to liquids and gases. In this way, the lithium core is electrochemically active but chemically isolated from the external electrolyte. The result is batteries with unusually high energy densities, several times higher than Li-ion. PolyPlus is currently developing both Lithium-Water and Lithium-Air batteries, and hopes to take the Lithium-Water variant to market next year. Li-Water batteries are expected to quickly find their way into buoys and other aquatic devices, including unmanned submersibles. The company has received a grant from ARPA-E for the development of rechargeable Li-Air batteries. Its Li-Water technology was included among Time Magazines 50 Best Inventions for 2011, and more recently it received the 2012 Gold Edison Award in Energy and Sustainability for its work in Li-Air and Li-Water batteries.

(I recently, erroneously placed PolyPlus at a prominent German industrial trade show, which they did not in fact attend.)

The EFF has issued an appeal to local governments to institute privacy protections against the misuse of drones by local law enforcement agencies. The FAA's initial rules for allowing flying robots into the National Airspace System were announced on 14 May. Many law enforcement agencies are already obtaining and flying drones but they're not likely to volunteer that information. It took an EFF Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to make the FAA release the list of who has been approved to fly spy drones over US cities. When local newspapers in Seattle found out from the EFF that police had purchased two drones and made survellience plans without informing the City Council, the Washington ACLU called for the city to develop policies to safeguard privacy and free speech rights. The police backed down

"With drones - and the privacy questions they raise - thrown into the public spotlight in that way, a contrite assistant police chief appeared before the Seattle City Council this week to assure city leaders and the public that the drones would not be deployed until written policies for their use are in place. He promised that police would work with the ACLU and others in the community to draft them."

There is also a safety concern as increasingly massive robots are flying over heavily populated areas. At least one police department crashed their shiny new $300k surveillance drone into their own SWAT vehicle during a test flight. There's no disputing the legitimate uses of domestic flying robots by government agencies, including first response to accident scenes, search and rescue, agricultural uses, forest fire monitoring. But concerns are being raised over the increasing militarization of US police departments and increasing abuses of power. If city-level governments refuse to address privacy concerns, will it fall to private individuals to launch their own UAVs to watch the watchers? Find out if your local police have already deployed flying robots to spy on you by checking the EFF's Domestic Drone Authorization map.

CC BY-SA licensed image from flickr user Marion Doss

This video introduces TurtleBot 2, which was shown this past weekend at ROSCon 2012. TurtleBot 2, built around an iClebo Kobuki from Korean firm Yujin Robot, improves upon the original from Willow Garage. (Note that Sam Park, Executive Vice President of Yujin Robot, recently joined Brian Gerkey, Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage, on the board of directors for the Open Source Robotics Foundation.)

The above video, posted to IEEE Spectrum's YouTube channel, shows a sampling of the exhibits that were there to be seen at ICRA 2012 (May 14-18), with a few scenes taken from the robot's point of view. Rated G for Good Fun!

In an interview conducted while attending Robotdalen, Professor Paolo Dario outlines three waves of innovation in robotics, predicting that the coming third wave will be characterized by interdisciplinary efforts and robots that both contribute to and depend heavily upon the ambient intelligence of ubiquitous networks. Having received his graduate degree in engineering from the University of Pisa, Professor Dario, in 1989, founded the Advanced Robotics Technology and Systems (ARTS) Lab. He is also coordinator of the Center for Research in Microengineering (CRIM Lab), and affiliated with the Biorobotics Institute, which encompasses both, within the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, also in Pisa. He is a past President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and the first european to hold this position. Looking forward, Prof. Dario is coordinator of the Robot Companions for Citizens (RCC) project, which is one of six candidates to become a FET Flagship Initiative. The essential characteristic of a robotic companion seems to be reciprocal empathy between the robot and the humans in its environment.

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Announced via the Willow Garage website, the Open Source Robotics Foundation, Inc. (OSRF) is an independent non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community. Its mission is to support the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research, education, and product development. OSRF's board of directors includes Professor Wolfram Burgard of the University of Freiburg, Ryan Gariepy, CTO of Clearpath Robotics, Brian Gerkey, Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage, Helen Greiner, a co-founder of iRobot and currently CEO of CyPhyWorks, and Sam Park, Executive Vice President of Yujin Robot. Initially sponsored projects include the Robot Operating System (ROS), and Gazebo, a 3D multi-robot simulator with dynamics. Gazebo has been chosen by DARPA as the simulation platform for its recently announced robotics challenge for (humanoid) disaster robots.

While it took her 16 days to do it, Claire Lomas, who lost use of her legs in a 2007 accident, finished the London Marathon with the aid of a ReWalk powered exoskeleton from Argo Medical Technologies.

Berkley's Floating Sensor Network project launched 100 floating robots equipped with GPS-enabled smartphones down the Sacramento River on May 9. The launch was designed to test a new generation of water monitoring technologies. The 12 inch robots, called Drifters, are designed to provide real-time, high-resolution data of hard-to-map waterways. One of many possible uses is locating breeches in levee systems quickly enough to allow repair, before erosion destroys the levee. Other uses include identifying contaminants. Andrew Tinka, lead graduate student on the project notes:

“If something spills in the water, if there’s a contaminant, you need to know where it is now, you need to know where it’s going, you need to know where it will be later on. The Floating Sensor Network project can help by tracking water flow at a level of detail not currently possible.”

Deploying the robots is as simple as throwing them into the water from boats, docks, or helicopters. Each robot has a buoyancy control system, differential drive, GPS, compass, depth sensor, salinity sensor, Zigbee and GSM radios, and 72 hours of power from a lithium battery. The open source control system is written entirely in Python and runs on top of Linux. The project is headed by Alexandre Bayen of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). For more details see the Berkley news release. The project has also released quite a few technical reports and papers describing the developments that went into designing the drifter robots. You can also check several videos of the robots in action.