Classroom Robotics

RoboDEER to the rescue!

2012-02-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

Robo-Deer Protects Innocent Wildlife From Poachers
"Wildlife in Florida have an unlikely new ally in the fight against poaching -- a remote-controlled buck lovingly known as Robo-deer. Although he can do little more than flick his tail and turn his head, Robo-deer is so convincingly lifelike that some illegal hunters can't help but take a shot at him. But when they do, those poachers end up getting served something a lot worse than steel veal -- that's because Robo-deer works for the cops.

No, Robo-deer isn't a character from science-fiction -- he's actually the latest modern tool being used by Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers to nab folks who keep on killing deer after the close of hunting season, a time when animal and man should be able to live in peace. "We have a problem with people poaching in this area," says officer Greg Stastay. "So, we're going to set up a deer for them to shoot."
That's where Robo-deer steps in. He's here to take a few bullets so his real-deer peers don't have to.

Officers are able to control Robo-deer's movements from up to 50 feet away with a radio-controlled device mounted its back. When the tempting target is placed in the brush along the roadside, folks driving by who have no qualms about hunting illegally will inevitably stop to shoot at the majestic, albeit mechanical, "animal" -- giving officers justification to step in and arrest them.

"Anybody who shoots at that deer will be arrested for illegal method and hunting deer out of season," says Stastay. Those who Robo-deer helps reveal as poachers can expect a severe punishment, too -- maximum penalties range between 60 days and one year in the slammer.

Despite the fact that he is purely mechanical at heart, the robotic buck has been gaining a bit of celebrity in his own right. Robo-deer's special crime-fighting skills are the centerpiece of tonight's episode of Operation Wild on Planet Green, a show which highlights some of the novel techniques law enforcement officials are using to protect nature's most vulnerable animals..."
Read the full article at its source:
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/robo-deer-protects-innocent-wildlife-from-poachers.html

Toy Robots OR Robotic Toys?

2012-02-04T08:32:00.001-05:00

desk pets makes some cool robots... their purpose? Let's just say they offer humans the opportunity to play with robots and celebrate their 'coolness factor'! Take a look>>> http://www.mydeskpets.com/

Suggested Reading... very worthwhile review of tankbot from Slash Gear: http://www.slashgear.com/desk-pets-tankbot-review-24197748/

Google's Driverless Robot Car

2012-01-27T08:14:00.001-05:00

"Collision in the Making Between Self-Driving Cars and How the World Works"

"SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Even as Google tests its small fleet of self-driving vehicles on California highways, legal scholars and government officials are warning that society has only begun wrestling with the changes that would be required in a system created a century ago to meet the challenge of horseless carriages.

What happens if a police officer wants to pull one of these vehicles over? When it stops at a four-way intersection, would it be too polite to take its turn ahead of aggressive human drivers (or equally polite robots)? What sort of insurance would it need?

These and other implications of what Google calls autonomous vehicles were debated by Silicon Valley technologists, legal scholars and government regulators last week at a daylong symposium sponsored by the Law Review and High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University.
As Google has demonstrated, computerized systems that replace human drivers are now largely workable and could greatly limit human error, which causes most of the 33,000 deaths and 1.2 million injuries that now occur each year on the nation’s roads.

Such vehicles also hold the potential for greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions — and, more broadly, for restoring the United States’ primacy in the global automobile industry.

But questions of legal liability, privacy and insurance regulation have yet to be addressed, and an array of speakers suggested that such challenges might pose far more problems than the technological ones..."

Read this article at its source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/technology/googles-autonomous-vehicles-draw-skepticism-at-legal-symposium.html?ref=science

Teach English Skills with MACHINARIUM, Robot Theme Video Game?

2012-01-26T16:36:00.000-05:00

"How to engage the disengaged: an English teacher discovers digital literacy really works"

Kenny Pieper
Guardian Professional, Monday 5 December 2011

"Long before the dizzy heights of, sometimes, twelve views per day on my blog, when I started blogging in January, I was about to undertake a project which would completely rejuvenate my classroom and my approach to teaching.

Inanimate Alice grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and shook me about a little bit. It did indeed turn out to be storytelling but not as we know it. I like to think I've never looked back. Making this blog post somewhat redundant, you might think. What I learned from the experience was that there is another way. I have never come across a resource which fires up the reluctant learner more than the digital storytelling power of Inanimate Alice . Perhaps until now.

Digital literacy has its critics, however, and I'm not sure I would recommend it for all ability groups. I became an English teacher because I was inspired by books, poems, and plays and wanted to share that love of language with others. I still get a thrill when they "get" Hamlet or Macbeth, The Catcher in the Rye or Lord of the Flies, November or Out, out-; but there are kids who will never get it, whatever "it" may be, will never belong to that world. We need to do something about that.

My class of demotivated learners – the same class who undertook the Sugata Mitra/Carol Dweck lesson earlier in the year – have been working on Machinarium. If you haven't heard of it yet it's a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design (thank you Wikipedia) and, as a stimulus for lots of quality writing, it is simply wonderful. There is a free three level demo which my class have been working on but the downloaded paid version has thirty levels. I gave my lot a handful of lap tops and left them to it.

It doesn't fit the mould of the usual "shooty gun" games they are used to and challenges them to work out problems and think of strategies and sequences. I ensured that they got a taste of their own medicine as I replied, "I don't know" to every question, but the initial confusion was quickly overcome as one pair, then another, then everyone began to manoeuvre through the stages. Their sense of achievement as they moved on was something they have struggled to find this year. The classroom was buzzing..."

Read the full article at its source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2011/dec/05/engage-disengaged-students-digital-literacy

More Robot Teachers

2012-01-24T10:18:00.001-05:00

"Students, Meet Your New Teacher, Mr. Robot

LOS ANGELES — The boy, a dark-haired 6-year-old, is playing with a new companion.

The two hit it off quickly — unusual for the 6-year-old, who has autism — and the boy is imitating his playmate’s every move, now nodding his head, now raising his arms.

“Like Simon Says,” says the autistic boy’s mother, seated next to him on the floor.

Yet soon he begins to withdraw; in a video of the session, he covers his ears and slumps against the wall.

But the companion, a three-foot-tall robot being tested at the University of Southern California, maintains eye contact and performs another move, raising one arm up high.

Up goes the boy’s arm — and now he is smiling at the machine.

In a handful of laboratories around the world, computer scientists are developing robots like this one: highly programmed machines that can engage people and teach them simple skills, including household tasks, vocabulary or, as in the case of the boy, playing, elementary imitation and taking turns.

So far, the teaching has been very basic, delivered mostly in experimental settings, and the robots are still works in progress, a hackers’ gallery of moving parts that, like mechanical savants, each do some things well at the expense of others.

Yet the most advanced models are fully autonomous, guided by artificial intelligence software like motion tracking and speech recognition, which can make them just engaging enough to rival humans at some teaching tasks..."

Read the full article at its source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/science/11robots.html?scp=4&sq=FIRST+student+robotics&st=nyt

ALSO
Robot Helps Kids with Autism Communicate

AND this excellent article...

"The RUBI Project: Preschoolers and autistic children benefit from teacher robots

Computer scientists from the University of Southern California have designed a three-foot-tall robot named “RUBI” to teach autistic children using repetitive therapy.
The researchers believe that RUBI could help “train” an autistic child to learn various social interactions, such as how to understand one’s personal space, and how to identify sad or happy emotions. (Researchers state that essentially RUBI was designed to “act like a cautious child hoping to join a playground game”). Although RUBI wasn’t programmed to speak, it does have to two words in can pronounce: “Uh-huh,” whenever a child comes closer to it, or “Aww,” if the child moves away. The robot is also designed to maintain eye contact, and can move its arms up and down.
The researchers have already tested RUBI on a 6-year-old autistic child, and throughout their teaching session he was interacting with the robot, and even mimicked its movements. RUBI was also tested on a preschooling class, and the researchers claim that the robot actually improved their test scores. However, when RUBI was first introduced to the preschoolers, two males students started to pick on the robot and pulled its arms off. The engineers then programmed RUBI to cry when its arms were pulled, and amazingly enough the children backed off as soon as they heard the robot’s sobs.

Will robots eventually replace human teachers? In South Korea, it’s already happening..."

Read the full article at its source: http://www.onlinedegrees.org/the-rubi-project-preschoolers-and-autistic-children-benefit-from-teacher-robots/

So are robots getting all the good jobs?

2012-01-10T11:17:00.000-05:00

"It's a Man vs. Machine Recovery

Companies have been buying technology instead of hiring, and Okun's Law is broken"

"The U.S. produces almost one-quarter more goods and services today than it did in 1999, while using almost precisely the same number of workers. It’s as if $2.5 trillion worth of stuff—the equivalent of the entire U.S. economy circa 1958—materialized out of thin air.

Although businesses haven’t added many people, they’ve certainly bulked up on machines. Spending on equipment and software hit an all-time high in the third quarter of 2011. “Huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less,” vaporizing jobs for everyone from steelworkers to travel agents, President Barack Obama warned in December.

So are robots getting all the good jobs? This year may provide the answer as the economy gathers steam. Most economists, cheered by 540,000 hires since Labor Day, say technology inevitably destroys some jobs even as it ultimately creates new ones. But with more than 20 million Americans still jobless or underemployed, others worry that something fundamental has changed. “What’s different now is the speed and scale of what’s happening,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Center for Digital Business. Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, co-authors of the recently published book Race Against the Machine, argue that the economy is in the early stages of a “Great Restructuring” that is hollowing out the labor market and exacerbating inequality.

Nonsense, say economists including James D. Hamilton of the University of California at San Diego. There’s nothing new about machines replacing people. In 1900, 41 percent of Americans worked on farms. Today, thanks to labor-saving tractors and combines, the figure is less than 2 percent. Yet ex-farm workers found new jobs. And as manufacturing grew leaner in recent decades, factory workers—or their children—migrated to finance, health care, computers, and other growing industries."

Read the full article at its source: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/its-a-man-vs-machine-recovery-01052012.html?chan=magazine+technology+channel_news+-+global+economics

Significat curriculum connection - Kurt Vonnegut's Novel "Player Piano" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano

ROBOT APPs - an insight into the emerging/exploding business of Robotics

2012-01-08T14:24:00.001-05:00

Here's an interesting item (Robot-Apps"Info-Graphic) that was submitted to this blog via email (below), but first check out the video this group created to introduce it: .

A larger version of the info-graphic below can be seen at its source: http://www.robotsappstore.com/Pages/robots-Apps-infographics.aspx (scroll down the page).

Source: RobotsAppStore.com

Robot Bakes Cookies.. and that's just the tip of his talent iceberg!

2011-12-07T16:48:00.000-05:00

Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duXFIKswTOM to read about how "Mechanical engineering student Mario Bollini shows off how the Willow Garage PR2 robot can be programmed to mix the ingredients and bake cookies at MIT's Computers Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). The robot uses a Microsoft Kinect game console to find the bowls in front of it, grab them, and then mix ingredients in a process that takes about two and a half hours. By finding out where it makes mistakes, Bollini and fellow researchers hope to improve the motion plan it sets out for the robot and learn how robots could be used for more complex tasks, such as manufacturing. This slideshow will show a sampling of robotics projects at CSAIL and other Massachusetts universities. Also see related story, "With Microsoft Kinect, MIT robots see in 3D."

Flexible Robot Crawls in Tight Spaces

2011-11-30T09:09:00.003-05:00

"Gumby-like flexible robot crawls in tight spaces

Harvard scientists have built a new type of flexible robot that is limber enough to wiggle and worm through tight spaces.

It's the latest prototype in the growing field of soft-bodied robots. Researchers are increasingly drawing inspiration from nature to create machines that are more bendable and versatile than those made of metal.

The Harvard team, led by chemist George M. Whitesides, borrowed from squids, starfish and other animals without hard skeletons to fashion a small, four-legged rubber robot that calls to mind the clay animation character Gumby.

In recent years, scientists have been tinkering with squishy — sometimes odd-looking — robots designed to squeeze through hard-to-reach cracks after a disaster like an earthquake or navigate rough terrain in the battlefield.

"The unique ability for soft robots to deform allows them to go places that traditional rigid-body robots cannot," Matthew Walter, a roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an email.

A team from Tufts University earlier this year showed off a 4-inch caterpillar-shaped robot made of silicone rubber that can curl into a ball and propel itself forward.

The Harvard project, funded by the Pentagon's research arm, was described online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new robot, which took two months to construct, is 5 inches long. Its four legs can be separately controlled by pumping air into the limbs, either manually or via computer. This gives the robot a range of motions including crawling and slithering.

The researchers tested the robot's flexibility by having it squirm underneath a pane of glass just three-quarters of an inch from the surface.

Scientists maneuvered the robot through the tiny gap 15 times using a combination of movements. In most cases, it took less than a minute to get from side to side.

Researchers eventually want to improve the robot's speed, but were pleased that it did not break from constant inflation and deflation.

"It was tough enough to survive," said Harvard postdoctoral fellow Robert Shepherd, adding that the robot can traverse on a variety of surfaces including felt cloth, gravel, mud and even Jell-O..."
Read the complete article at its source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/gumby-flexible-robot-crawls-tight-spaces-15044453

2011 LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Winners!

2011-11-25T14:02:00.000-05:00

Thanks to LEGO education for this program and posting these fabulous student robotics projects! LEGO Robotics is 'THE" approach, resource set, and student activity type most perfect for STEM learning for 21st Century Learners! This LEGO education web page has links to dozens and dozens and dozens of videos of student projects

Follow this link to student project videos

Click here to view student LEGO Robotics project videos

Want to get started using LEGO Robotics with your young learners? It's easier than you think! This book is for all interested in Getting Started with LEGO Robotics

Students Use Robotics to do Underwater Archaology

2011-11-10T08:05:00.000-05:00

FETCH ROBOT - AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)

"Students Use Futuristic Technology to Dive Into the Past

Released:11/7/2011 2:30 PM EST
Source:Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS),College of William and Mary

Newswise — A new partnership between the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Watermen’s Museum in historic Yorktown will give local students a unique opportunity to dive into Colonial history—literally.
The project, funded by a 1-year grant from the National Science Foundation, will allow the students to pilot unmanned robotic submarines in an attempt to monitor the conservation status of shipwrecked vessels scuttled by Lord Cornwallis during the Battle of Yorktown in 1781—the last major battle of the American Revolution.
Leading the project are Dr. Mark Patterson, head of the Autonomous Systems Laboratory at VIMS, and Dr. David Niebuhr, Director of the Watermen’s Museum. The students are from Point Option High School in Newport News, the Williamsburg Montessori Middle School, and Peasley Middle School in Gloucester. VIMS graduate student Jennifer Elliott, who is teaching at Peasley as part of the VIMS GK-12 partnership, will also be involved.
The project capitalizes on the recent discovery in the York River of two new shipwrecks from the siege of Yorktown. Previous archeological work had revealed the presence of nine other wrecks, including the HMS Betsy, the target of intensive study during the 1970s and 1980s. These wrecks are listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places..."
Read the full article at its source: http://www.newswise.com/articles/students-use-futuristic-technology-to-dive-into-the-past2

Book Reviews: Race Agains the Machine

2011-11-06T00:46:00.000-04:00

"Robots Are Coming to Take Your Job
Are you a truck driver? How about a retail clerk, bank teller, tax preparer? Or even a doctor, lawyer, or accountant? If so, a robot may be coming to take your job away in the near future.
That is the premise of a new e-book called “Race Against the Machine” by MIT economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, which is available on Amazon. In their book, they argue that our current unemployment problems are not just due to job outsourcing, but also to the rapid pace of technology, and most people’s inability to keep up with it.
In the past, technological innovations tended to destroy jobs when they were first introduced. The invention of the grain thresher ended employment for 25% of the agricultural workers that had been needed to bring in the crops. But there has always been a net gain of jobs in the long run, as new technologies created jobs in fields that had not existed before.

In their book, Brynjolfsson and McAfee make the case that these days, machines are increasingly able to perform tasks in which humans were once unquestioned masters. And corporations are eager to replace workers, with their irritating need for pay, health care, and retirement plans, with robots and computers who will work 24 hours a day without complaining, and in many cases do a job much better than humans can. This is leading to a situation ..."
Read the full article at its source: http://open.salon.com/blog/frank_michels/2011/11/04/robots_are_coming_to_take_your_job

AND

"More Jobs Predicted for Machines, Not People

A faltering economy explains much of the job shortage in America, but advancing technology has sharply magnified the effect, more so than is generally understood, according to two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The automation of more and more work once done by humans is the central theme of “Race Against the Machine,” an e-book...
“Many workers, in short, are losing the race against the machine,” the authors write.
Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the M.I.T. Center for Digital Business, and Andrew P. McAfee, associate director and principal research scientist at the center, are two of the nation’s leading experts on technology and productivity. The tone of alarm in their book is a departure for the pair, whose previous research has focused mainly on the benefits of advancing technology.
Indeed, they were originally going to write a book titled, “The Digital Frontier,” about the “cornucopia of innovation that is going on,” Mr. McAfee said. Yet as the employment picture failed to brighten in the last two years, the two changed course to examine technology’s role in the jobless recovery.
The authors are not the only ones recently to point to the job fallout from technology. In the current issue of the McKinsey Quarterly, W. Brian Arthur, an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, warns that technology is quickly taking over service jobs, following the waves of automation of farm and factory work. “This last repository of jobs is shrinking — fewer of us in the future may have white-collar business process jobs — and we have a problem,” Mr. Arthur writes...

Technology has always displaced some work and jobs. Over the years, many experts have warned — mistakenly — that machines were gaining the upper hand. In 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes warned of a “new disease” that he termed “technological unemployment,” the inability of the economy to create new jobs faster than jobs were lost to automation..."
Read the full article at its source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/technology/economists-see-more-jobs-for-machines-not-people.html

National Geographic Show 'Robot Genius' - Great STEM Educational Content

2011-11-06T00:37:00.001-04:00

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/national-geographic-channel/all-videos/av-10788-10988/ngc-robot-genius.html

This wonderful show reveals the spirit of 'home brew' robotics engineering. Fantastic to see what an inspired and talented DIY roboticist an do!

Robotic Legs give paralyzed woman the gift of movement

2011-11-02T12:13:00.001-04:00

Robotic skeleton helps paraplegic walk
A paraplegic woman has been fitted with a robotic suit which has helped her to walk again
Read the full Telegraph story @: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8841836/Robotic-skeleton-helps-paraplegic-walk.html

A set of robotic legs originally bankrolled by the U.S. military to give soldiers a superhuman edge on the battlefield have been repurposed by a company called Ekso Bionics for a more charitable task: giving paraplegics a chance to walk again. The exoskeleton -- which was demonstrated Friday at the London International Technology Show -- relies on sensors and a CPU to mimic nerve and brain function. The company said it will make the Ekso available to rehabilitation centers in the U.K. starting next year.

Which Is Man's BEST Friend, the Dog or the Robot?

2011-10-19T18:44:00.000-04:00

All those novelty bots that vacuum up crumbs and bring you a cold drink are great, but they're not exactly doing the work you really dread. A group of Penn students is bypassing the neat-o factor and getting right down to business, no pun intended. A team at the university's General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception lab has taught a robot to scoop poop.
PR2 robot Graspy can already read, as we learned in the Spring when Health & Science reporter Carolyn Beeler paid a visit to the GRASP lab. Now the work of five determined students has the bot learning something a little more physical. The robot is picking up droppings with a 95 percent success rate. GRASP student Ben Cohen even went to San Francisco to show off the possible future of robotics.

"This project was a week-long project from the summer in which four friends and I got the PR2 robot to autonomously scoop poop," Cohen explained. "Mankind wants robots to do all of our menial tasks that we don't want to do. I think scooping poop is the perfect task for my future robot at home."
Read the full article at its source: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/the-feed/item/28514-penn-students-teaching-robots-to-do-our-dirtiest-work

Robots Help Autistic Children

2011-10-18T16:33:00.002-04:00

Robots built to help autistic childrenAn effective therapist might just be metallic, mechanical and nonhuman.

FROM: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-autism-robots-20111017,0,5798122.story
"Robots aren't known for their soft side. They build cars and defuse bombs; they don't, as a rule, make friends or deal with feelings. But a few groups of researchers around the world are working to build robots for an unusual purpose: Making emotional connections with autistic children who often struggle to interact with humans.

There's something about machines that really seems to resonate with many kids with autism, says Maja Mataric, co-director of the Robotics Research Lab at USC. These children often have trouble reading human emotions and social cues — complexities they don't have to worry about when they're around a mechanical being.
"Robots are simpler than people," Mataric says.

Still, robots may seem like unlikely candidates for a job usually filled by therapists. As Mataric points out, the general public usually thinks of robots as either cold and efficient workers (at their best) or outright evil beings bent on enslaving humanity (at their worst).

The researchers at USC have a different vision. "We're trying to create something that's endearing," Mataric says.

The result: Bandit, a metallic-colored, child-sized robot that can win the attention — and even empathy — of hard-to-reach kids.
Bandit has a pleasant, inviting face with a movable mouth, archable eyebrows and camera eyes that let him "watch" his playmates. He also has proximity sensors to gauge whether kids are backing away or moving in. If they get too close, he can wheel away.

With his motor-driven arms, Bandit can automatically mimic the motions of children and lead a game of Simon Says. He can make sad sighs or happy chips, and he blows bubbles with the push of a button. He can also talk in soothing tones, although USC researches are just beginning to use Bandit's speech in their work with children with autism..."
Read the full article at its source: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-autism-robots-20111017,0,5798122.story

This Ultra-realistic ROBOT blinks!

2011-10-16T08:00:00.001-04:00

This is from the first test of the Geminoid. The first hint of a smile triggers immediate response. The people laughing in the background are the designers, who at this point have worked on the robot for months, and here see it operated for the first time.
'Gemini' meaning Twins + 'Oid' meaning of Similar Form to = GEMINOID

Related Links:

Paralyzed man uses mind-powered robot arm to touch

2011-10-10T10:36:00.000-04:00

PITTSBURGH: Giving a high-five. Rubbing his girlfriend’s hand. Such ordinary acts _ but a milestone for a paralyzed man.
True, a robotic arm parked next to his wheelchair did the touching, painstakingly, palm to palm. But Tim Hemmes made that arm move just by thinking about it.
Emotions surged. For the first time in the seven years since a motorcycle accident left him a quadriplegic, Hemmes was reaching out to someone _ even if it was only temporary, part of a month long science experiment at the University of Pittsburgh.
‘‘It wasn’t my arm but it was my brain, my thoughts. I was moving something,’’ Hemmes says. ‘‘I don’t have one single word to give you what I felt at that moment. That word doesn’t exist.’’
The Pennsylvania man is among the pioneers in an ambitious quest for thought-controlled prosthetics to give the paralyzed more independence _ the ability to feed themselves, turn a doorknob, hug a loved one.
The goal is a Star Trek-like melding of mind and machine, combining what’s considered the most humanlike bionic arm to date _ even the fingers bend like real ones _ with tiny chips implanted in the brain. Those electrodes tap into electrical signals from brain cells that command movement. Bypassing a broken spinal cord, they relay those signals to the robotic third arm.
This research is years away from commercial use, but numerous teams are investigating different methods.
At Pittsburgh, monkeys learned to feed themselves marshmallows by thinking a robot arm into motion. At Duke University, monkeys used their thoughts to move virtual arms on a computer and got feedback that let them distinguish the texture of what they ‘‘touched.’’
Through a project known as BrainGate and other research, a few paralyzed people outfitted with brain electrodes have used their minds to work computers, even make simple movements with prosthetic arms.
But can these neuroprosthetics ever offer the complex, rapid movements that people would need for more practical, everyday use?
‘‘We really are at a tipping point now with this technology,’’ says Michael McLoughlin of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which developed the humanlike arm in a $100 million project for DARPA, the Pentagon’s research agency.
Pittsburgh is helping to lead a closely watched series of government-funded studies over the next two years to try to find out. A handful of quadriplegic volunteers will train their brains to operate the DARPA arm in increasingly sophisticated ways, even using sensors implanted in its fingertips to try to feel what they touch, while scientists explore which electrodes work best.
‘‘Imagine all the joints that are in your hand. There’s 20 motions around all those joints,’’ says Pittsburgh neurobiologist Andrew Schwartz. ‘‘It’s not just reaching out and crudely grasping something. We want them to be able to use the fingers we’ve worked so hard on.’’
The 30-year-old Hemmes’ task was a much simpler first step. He was testing whether a new type of chip, which for safety reasons the Food and Drug Administration let stay on this initial volunteer’s brain for just a month, could allow for three-dimensional arm movement.
He surprised researchers the day before the electrodes were removed. The robotic arm whirred as Hemmes’ mind pushed it forward to hesitantly tap palms with a scientist.
Then his girlfriend beckoned. The room abruptly hushed. Hemmes painstakingly raised the black metal hand again and slowly rubbed its palm against hers a few times.
These emotional robotic touches have inspired researchers now recruiting volunteers for soon-to-start yearlong experiments.
‘‘It was awesome,’’ is the decidedly unscientific description from the normally reserved Dr. Michael Boninger, rehabilitation chief at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. ‘‘To interact with a human that way. … This is the beginning.’’
Hemmes’ journey began in 2004. He owned an auto-detailing shop and rode his motorcycle in his spare time. Then one summer evening he swerved to miss a deer. His bike struck a guardrail. His neck snapped.
His determination didn’t. Paralyzed below the shoulders, he’s tried other experimental procedures in hopes, so far unrealized, of regaining some arm function.
‘‘I always tell people your legs are great … but they just get you from here to there,’’ Hemmes says as his caregiver waits to feed him a bite of a cheeseburger near his home in Butler, north of Pittsburgh. ‘‘Your arms and fingers and hands do everything else. I have to get those back, I absolutely have to.’’
Read the full article at its source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/10/paralyzed-man-uses-mind-powered-robot-arm-to-touch.html

A robot that flies like a bird

2011-10-09T10:35:00.000-04:00

A robot that flies like a bird

ROBOT, get me a sandwich!

2011-10-05T18:05:00.001-04:00

Ask For a Sandwich and This Robot Will Go to Subway For You
"Longtime readers know that I’m a fan of Willow Garage’s PR2 robot, which is being used all over the world for robotics research. It’s also been used in student projects to perform tasks that seem relatively simple for humans, but are actually rather hard for robots, including baking cookies, solving Rubik’s cubes, and doing the laundry.

Now here’s an even more interesting piece of programming. A team of researchers from both University of Tokyo and Technische Universität München have joined forces to develop what they’re calling “semantic search” for use with the PR2. Evan Ackerman explains:

“Semantic search” is simply the ability to make inferences about an object based on what is known about similar objects and the environment. It sounds complicated, but it’s really just a computerized version of what we humans think of as “common sense.” For example, if someone asks you to bring them a cup without telling you exactly where the cup is, you’re probably clever enough to infer that cups can be found in drawers or cabinets or dishwashers, and that drawers and cabinets and dishwashers are all usually located in a kitchen, so you can go to the kitchen, poke around for a little bit, and find a cup. Semantic search allows robots to do the same sort of thing.

Now that’s a pretty innovative piece of programming. What’s more interesting is that it will also learn. So if you store something in a room not normally associated with the object – say, your phone chargers in the hall closet – it will learn to associate phone chargers and the hall closet.

You can see a demo of the PR2 with semantic search below. Here, the robot is given a simple command – to get a sandwich. It first checks the kitchen, fails to find a sandwich, and then goes somewhere else where sandwiches are found – the local Subway. It even knows what floor to take the elevator to. Check it out..."
Read the entire article at its source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/10/05/ask-for-a-sandwich-and-this-robot-will-go-to-subway-for-you/

COOL STUFF (Educational Resources for Students & Teachers)

2011-10-03T08:44:00.000-04:00

Cool stuff, indeed!.. Some very worthwhile resources from iRobot's S.P.A.R.K. (Starter Programs for the Advancement of Robotics Knowledge).
EXPLORE>>> http://spark.irobot.com/educational_resources

RoboCop, a robot whose time has come...

2011-10-03T08:27:00.001-04:00

http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2011/07/03/robocop-blueprint/

"... RoboCop Revisited: How Automation Is Transforming Public Safety

Law enforcement technology may not have reached the point where officers are replaced by cyborgs (think RoboCop), but new automated devices and robots are making public safety efforts more efficient and significantly less dangerous.

According to experts, unmanned ground robots, 3-D technology and various scientific developments are slowly but steadily changing how police, tactical and rescue personnel spend their time and do their jobs.

Four-wheeled drones (that have more in common with Mars rovers than screenwriter Ed Neumeier’s RoboCop character) are increasingly being used to extend the eyes and ears of police and military personnel. A variety of companies are producing these robots, which are designed to keep people out of harm’s way.

For instance, a line of ground and maritime robots from iRobot, a robot designer and manufacturer, is focused on achieving mission objectives such as observation and investigation. The company’s small unmanned ground vehicles have been used by bomb squads and SWAT teams to gather information prior to raids. Knob Moses, head of iRobot’s Government and Industrial Robots Division and a retired Navy supply officer, said giving people the ability to diffuse bombs and investigate scenes with a remote presence that features audio and video feeds is a huge safety benefit. Whether it’s a hostage situation or a drug lab, the ability to see and hear what’s going on from a distance improves situational awareness and saves lives...."

Read the full story at its source (GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY): http://www.govtech.com/technology/RoboCop-Revisited-How-Automation-Is-Transforming-Public-Safety.html?elq=fb00d4a8f35c41b7a161c58ae98eb15b

The Robot Film Festival: "And the Winner Is...."

2011-09-18T08:44:00.001-04:00

Double A - Robot from Julien Vanhoenacker on Vimeo.
"Robots take the stage! The Robot Film Festival, sponsored by Science House, was founded by roboticist Heather Knight of Marilyn Monrobot and Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute to inject a sense of playfulness into traditional science and engineering and explore new frontiers for robotics before the technology is even possible. Get ready to investigate humanity, machinery and the larger symbolisms within.

The festival is a two day celebration of outstanding, dazzling, hilarious and thought-provoking short robot films. Saturday's events will open with a screening of Spike Jonze's "I'm Here," juried screenings and live performances by human and digital entertainers. ...."Read the full story at its source...
http://www.teenkidsnews.com/index.php?/Latest-Articles/Robot-Film-Festival.html

Chatting Robots

2011-09-02T09:13:00.000-04:00

Very interesting story about ChatBOTs and their conversations...
"Robot-To-Robot Chat Yields Curious Conversation

This week, Cornell's Creative Machines Lab posted a video that shows what happens when a robot chats with another robot. The result? A curious conversation that goes from eccentric to existential. Robert Siegel talks to Hod Lipson, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, who helped set up the experiment..."
Read and listen to the full story at its source: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/01/140124824/robot-to-robot-chat-yields-curious-conversation

Also see story:"Suzette Chatbot Managed To Convince An Expert That She Was Human" @ http://www.ubergizmo.com/2010/10/suzette-chatbot-managed-to-convince-an-expert-that-she-was-human/

AND "How to create your own virtual self" @ http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/01/how-to-create-your-own-virtual-self.html

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Interactive Demonstration

2011-08-10T18:56:00.002-04:00

Rock, Paper, Scissors
A great interactive simulation from the New York Times

"Smarter Than You Think
Rock-Paper-Scissors: You vs. the Computer

Computers mimic human reasoning by building on simple rules and statistical averages. Test your strategy against the computer in this rock-paper-scissors game illustrating basic artificial intelligence. Choose from two different modes: novice, where the computer learns to play from scratch, and veteran, where the computer pits over 200,000 rounds of previous experience against you."
Access the simulation @ it's source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/rock-paper-scissors.html?ref=science

Robots Get Real - Fantastic National Geographic Article and Photos - August, 2011

2011-07-28T07:14:00.002-04:00

Aguust 2011 - National Geographic Article "Us and Them"
"Robots are being created that can think, act, and relate to humans. Are we ready?"

Robots Lab (from National Geographic - August 2011)
"...Someone types a command into a laptop, and Actroid-DER jerks upright with a shudder and a wheeze. Compressed air flows beneath silicone skin, triggering actuators that raise her arms and lift the corners of her mouth into a demure smile. She seems to compose herself, her eyes panning the room where she stands fixed to a platform, tubes and wires running down through her ankles. She blinks, then turns her face toward me. I can't help but meet her—its—mechanical gaze. "Are you surprised that I'm a robot?" she asks. "I look just like a human, don't I?"

Her scripted observation has the unfortunate effect of calling my attention to the many ways she does not. Developed in Japan by the Kokoro Company, the Actroid-DER android can be rented to serve as a futuristic spokesmodel at corporate events, a role that admittedly does not require great depth of character. But in spite of the $250,000 spent on her development, she moves with a twitchy gracelessness, and the inelasticity of her features lends a slightly demented undertone to her lovely face. Then there is her habit of appearing to nod off momentarily between utterances, as if she were on something stronger than electricity..."

Read the full article and see the gallery of photos at their source:

National Geographic / August 2011

ISTE Author PODCAST - Getting Started with LEGO Robotics - Mark Gura

2011-07-27T20:46:00.001-04:00

ISTE Casts - The trusted voice of Ed Tech
Audio podcasts produced by the International Society for Technology in Education

ISTE Books Author Interview
Episode 28: Mark Gura
click on the link above and then on the podcast icon

Mark Gura, author of Getting Started in LEGO Robotics: A Guide for K–12 Educators, discusses the benefits of LEGO Robotics and provides encouraging insight into starting your own LEGO Robotics program. LEGO Robotics is a hands on, multidisciplinary, collaborative learning experience. Mark Gura provides you with first-hand advice and recommendations so you can have your own robotics program up and running in no time.

Getting Started with LEGO Robotics: A Guide for K-12 Educators

2011-07-03T16:57:00.003-04:00

Proudly announcing the release of 'Getting Started with LEGO Robotics: A Guide for K-12 Educators' by Mark Gura - Published by ISTE - International Society of Technology in Education, 2011). Everything that teachers, parents, activity group leaders need to know to get started guiding students in using and learning with LEGO Robotics.

For more information on the book or to purchase it:
- http://www.iste.org/store/product.aspx?ID=1690
........................................and
- http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-LEGO-Robotics-Educators/dp/1564842983

'Robot Journalist' Out-Writes Human Sports Reporter

2011-04-17T17:45:00.002-04:00

"Okay, so it's not really a robot. It's actually a software program. You feed it data, it processes that data, and it spits out a news story putting those numbers you gave it into context — just like you'd see in your local newspaper. In the beginning, it was used exclusively for sports stories and a lot of people were skeptical — namely, real-life sports journalists. "I always imagine kind of the robot you imagined in the third grade with the boxy body and the antennae arms, standing in front of a keyboard," says Emma Carmichael, a writer for the sports website Deadspin. She and her colleagues at Deadspin took a few digs at the idea, and this spring, when they came across a particularly bad account of a baseball game on the college sports website GWSports.com they assumed it was machine generated. University of Virginia player Will Roberts had pitched a perfect game against George Washington University. The story on GWSports.com neglected to mention that fact until the second-to-last paragraph. "That was shocking," Carmichael says. "This was the first time this had happened in the NCAA since 2002. And when it happens, you expect to see it in the headline and you expect to see everyone talking about that aspect of the game." The writer of that story — it turns out — was a living, breathing human being. But the creators of Narrative Science, a news-writing software program, took Deadspin's assumption as fighting words. They set out to prove that their system could produce a better story. "We actually got hold of the information director of the school, we got the raw material, the numbers around the story," said Kris Hammond, Chief Technology Officer of Narrative Science. "And we fed it to our system, which wrote the story, where the headline and the lead were focused on the fact that it was a no-hitter. Because how could you write a baseball story and not notice that it was a no hitter? I mean what kind of writer or machine would you be?" And, here's the machine-generated copy they sent in to Deadspin: "Tuesday was a great day for W. Roberts, as the junior pitcher threw a perfect game to carry Virginia to a 2-0 victory over George Washington at Davenport Field. Twenty-seven Colonials came to the plate and the Virginia pitcher vanquished them all, pitching a perfect game. He struck out 10 batters while recording his momentous feat. Roberts got Ryan Thomas to ground out for the final out of the game. Tom Gately came up short on the rubber for the Colonials, recording a loss. He went three innings, walked two, struck out one, and allowed two runs. The Cavaliers went up for good in the fourth, scoring two runs on a fielder's choice and a balk." Deadspin conceded. They published a follow up, saying that — in this case — the machine did write the better story..." The above is quoted from NPR - To read this item in its entirety and listen to the NPR audio at this item's source, go to: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135471975/robot-journalist-out-writes-human-sports-reporter

High School Builds Robot for Florida Police Department

2011-04-11T07:17:00.003-04:00

From Government Technology: http://www.govtech.com "...The newest member of the Rockledge, Fla., Police Department is two feet tall and weighs 100 pounds, but it’s not police dog — it’s a robot named PDbot. Nearly a year and a half ago, the Police Department tapped Rockledge High School to build a robot for assisting with police operations. The robot has since been completed and has been with the department for nearly a week. PDbot will soon be working with officers in training exercises to eventually be taken out into the field. The idea to acquire a robot or similar mechanism came to be when the department started discussing new ideas to deliver “throw phones” in hostage situations, said Chris Cochie, an investigator for the department. A throw phone is a phone that’s delivered to a hostage-taker to create a line of communication with police during negotiations. “I thought it’d be cool if we had some sort of remote control car or vehicle or something that we could attach the throw phone to, to drive it up to the bad guy,” Cochie said. The Police Department decided to approach the local high school about building and donating a robot to the department since it didn’t have the budget to purchase one. Rockledge High School is known to have one of the best robotics teams in the country, so approaching it was the smart choice, Cochie said. During one of the high school’s football games, the department’s former SWAT commander approached Marian Passmore, a math and science teacher (and current instructor for the school’s robotics team), about the idea, which she agreed to. Students from nearby Cocoa Beach High School joined the team as well. For a year and a half, a subgroup of the robotics team — 14 students total during the course of the project — prototyped, designed and built PDbot, Passmore said. Once completed, the robot was not only able to deliver a throw phone, but also can deliver medical supplies or other items during a crisis situation. In addition, the robot can launch smoke bombs, has video capability for drug surveillance, infrared for nighttime operations as well as other features. PDbot can be remotely operated up to 500 feet from the driver’s station. During a training exercise with the department’s SWAT team, to test the robot’s strength, an officer laid on the ground and had the robot push and pull him in the grass. Passmore said another officer commented that the robot’s pulling capability would be beneficial if an officer was injured during police operations because PDbot could pull him or her to a safe location. Because the Police Department lacked the funds to purchase a robot, obtaining money to build PDbot was the robotics team’s responsibility. Every year the team raises between $45,000 and $50,000 through fundraising, educational outreach grants and from local businesses, and the team put $14,000 toward the PDbot project, Passmore said. While the students were the robot’s main designers and builders, mentors from NASA and the Kennedy Space Center also came on board to help the students complete the project, Passmore said. “The biggest challenge is that they are kids. People have to remember that they are students, they’re not engineers when they’re in high school,” Passmore said, later adding, “But they’ve had some experiences that maybe a normal science class that you walk into, those kids wouldn’t have had.” According to a press release, the next version of PDbot is under development and will add full duplex audio, an attachment to break through glass doors, a taser and more." To read the complete article at its source go to: http://www.govtech.com/public-safety/High-School-Robot-Florida-Police-Department-040811.html?elq=1bda872447a743b4af465f9777f6ec83

Robots to Go Into Japan's Broken Nuclear Plants - Human's Breathe Sigh of Relief!

2011-03-23T12:16:00.003-04:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>From - NPR

"First Eyes Inside Nuclear Plant May Be A Robot's
Workers in Japan want to look inside three troubled reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. But intense radiation inside the buildings means that it is too dangerous for them to enter. One solution? Robots. They're good at going places where people just don't want to go.

"The purpose of robots is to do those dull, dirty and dangerous missions — so dangerous is certainly what we're talking about here," says Tim Trainer, a vice president at iRobot, an American firm that has sent four of its robots to the company that owns the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant

After a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the plant on March 11, operators lost power to the buildings that hold the reactors. In the ensuing days, three of them heated up and partially melted down. Explosions and fires that accompanied the accident have knocked out valuable equipment and left the area dangerously radioactive.

"A lot of the sensors and cameras are no longer operative in the facility, so the robot can provide your eyes and ears," Trainer says.

The robots Trainer has sent are designed to investigate bombs for the military, and some have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan. They look like little tanks and are about 3 feet long. On their front is an extra set of extendable treads, which they can use to get over things.

I would anticipate that we are going to see a phenomenal enterprise of remote work systems that are brought to bear over the weeks, months and years of recovering Fukushima.

That maneuverability could come in handy at Fukushima Dai-ichi — the area around the plant is cluttered with debris. The robots also come equipped with cameras and chemical and radiation sensors. One type has a robotic arm that can open doors — unless they're locked.

Once the robots get inside, they might use their cameras to inspect the condition of the containment vessels around the reactors or take samples to check the radiation levels.

But this is only the start of the role that the robots may play at Fukushima. Carnegie Mellon University robotics researcher Red Whittaker has assisted with robotic operations at nuclear accidents like Chernobyl. He says after that 1986 accident, at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine, radiation levels were too high for workers to conduct cleanup operations, so remote-controlled robots had to take over..."
Read the full article at its source - listen to the NPR episode - view video, etc.: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/23/134769065/first-eyes-inside-nuclear-plant-may-be-a-robots

South Korean Students Learn English from Robot Teacher

2011-03-13T12:02:00.003-04:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>FROM: www.voanews.com

"Many South Korean families spend thousands of dollars a year on English language education for their children. Students attend private academies often until late at night everyday. Most such schools hire teachers from abroad, but a team of engineers has created a robot that they hope will eventually replace foreign instructors.

Engkey wheels around the front of a classroom at the Hagjeong Primary School in Daegu.

The egg-shaped robot asks the class - six fourth-grade students - to repeat English phrases and teaches them children’s songs in English.

But Engkey’s voice is not its own. It is connected via teleconference to the Philippines, where a teacher conducts the class through a monitor. An image of a Caucasian woman appears on Engkey’s LCD panel head, although she is not the teacher in the Philippines.

But Engkey’s creators say this robot is much more than a video screen on wheels.

Kim Mun-sang is director of the Intelligent Robotics Program at the government-funded Korea Institute for Science and Technology in Seoul. He explains how the robot works.

"We have some perception technology,” Kim said. “We can detect the motion of the English teacher. As soon as the teacher moves his hand, the robot raises its hand, if the teacher for example laughs, we can detect his laughing expression. So the robot can do just like the English teacher does."

Kim say Engkey also has an autonomous mode in which it can recognize a student’s English speech and correct pronunciation.

Kim says because of South Korea’s strong emphasis on learning English, robots can make up for the shortfall in foreign teachers.

"In Korea there is a lot of demand for English learning, so, they need a very good English lessons from native speakers, but as you know it is not easy to have good quality of English native teachers in Korea at once, there are not so many," Kim added.

Kim adds that Engkey will save schools money. He says the cost to build a robot and hire a Filipino teacher to work with it is around $20,000 a year. That is roughly half the cost of supporting a foreign teacher in Korea.

He says if the Engkey pilot program here in Daegu proves a success, then more robots could be used in after-school tutoring.

So far, students at the Hagjeong School give Engkey high marks.

One 10-year-old boy, who says his English name is Tony, admits he was a little nervous about the robot at first, but likes its singing and dancing

And 10-year-old Charlotte says she likes the robot teacher better than human teachers.

But some teachers think a robot cannot replace the real thing.

Yu Do-hyun lectures in English and education at Seoul’s Kookmin University.

She says Engkey’s novelty will wear off quickly.

"At first children will like to see the Engkey and play with Engkey, learning from Engkey, but after several classes, they are not interested anymore," Yu said.

And Yu adds that learning from a robot deprives students of the main reason for studying a foreign language, human interaction.

"Communication is between humans, so they need practicing with native speakers, human teachers,” Yu added. “Even though they practice English a lot with the robots, when they meet human native speakers, they will be very nervous, because they haven’t conversed with real speakers."

Engkey’s creators say that students will determine how successful the robot is as a teacher. But they hope that someday all schools in South Korea will have a robot in the classroom..."
READ THE FULL STORY @ ITS SOURCE: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/South-Korean-Students-Learn-English-from-Robot-Teacher-117640783.html

Robot Marathon – 26.2 Miles to Glory

2011-02-13T06:50:00.001-05:00

"Robots have barely learned how to walk, but Vstone is already pushing them to run. The Japanese robot research and manufacturing firm has announced it is putting together the world’s first marathon for our mechanical offspring. The Robot Challenge will have bipedal bots racing around a 100m track for 422 laps either remotely controlled or operating completely autonomously by following a painted line. As you can see in the video below, the contest is unlikely to feature sprinting or even jogging competitors. This race will go to the strong and steady robot that can survive the repeated wear and tear on its servos. Fast or slow, the Robot Challenge marathon marks a step in the evolution of amateur level contests – we know you can make fun or fierce artificial humanoids, now show us a bot that has the staying power to really serve the human race.

Along with their announcement for the Robot Challenge, Vstone released the following concept video. It’s very short, just enough footage to give developers an idea of what they’d need to work on. Note that this demo track is far from being 100 meters long.

The robot shown in the demo is Vstone’s own Robovie-PC, developed in cooperation with ATR. Robovie-PC is a robot that’s also a computer, hence the name. It features a 1.6 GHz processor, twenty degrees of freedom, and a 1.3 megapixel camera in its head. That latest sensor is likely how the bot is able to stay on track during its test run. Retailing for around $4500, Robovie-PC probably represents a typical investment expected for contestants in the Robot Challenge. You don’t have to be a major research institution to afford such a setup, but you can’t exactly be a first-time competitor either.

On the 42.2 km (26.2 mile) journey, it’s expected that many robots will have break downs. Vstone allows for you to replace damaged parts (though not the entire robot) and will use the total time (travel plus maintenance) as the competing score. Sort of like robot NASCAR.

In a world where the majority of amateur robot competitions involve bots pushing each other in ‘wrestling matches’ or kicking balls in soccer matches, Robot Challenge could be something pretty novel. You’re not trying to create a new fighting skill, or fancy new athletic maneuvers, you’re just trying to get your robot to walk for miles without breaking down. Maybe that’s more mundane than we’re used to, but if you think about it, it’s really more exciting than most of the other contests out there. After all, if we really want robots to come work in our homes and do our dirty work, it will be reliability that is the top concern. All major robot research firms perform these types of endurance trials, it’s high time they got the same attention in amateur-level robot competitions.

Robot Challenge is pretty awe-inspiring when you think that every stride the bipeds take could bring us one step closer to creating practical humanoid robots. I’m going to keep that in mind as I cue up the theme of Chariots of Fire and watch the Robovie-PC’s..."

Read the full article at its source:
http://singularityhub.com/2011/02/09/japanese-company-to-sponsor-first-robot-marathon-26-2-miles-to-glory/

Stay Home and Send Your Robot in to Work!

2011-02-10T07:17:00.003-05:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>FROM: Hacked Gadgets

"The $15,000 robot has now been available for sale for a few days but has been in beta testing for a long time. It serves an obvious need, just imagine having an Anybot at your remote locations that you need to travel too frequently. Instead of spending countless hours flying and expensive lodging expenses you could simply log into an Anybot that has been setup on site and conduct your business. You could visit a dozen branches on Monday morning and still make your 1:00 PM golf tee time..."
Read the full article at its source: http://hackedgadgets.com/2011/02/03/anybot-telepresence-robot/

Robots help sick kids go to school

2011-02-04T07:11:00.003-05:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SOURCE: CNET News online 2/1/11

"Children too sick to go to school are still getting an education--thanks to robots in the classroom that transmit lessons back to the student.

(Credit: Vgo Communications) Stepan Supin, 12, of Moscow has been battling leukemia for two years, and his immune system is so weak he can't leave home. However, telepresence technology allows him to go to school via remote-controlled robot.

The R.BOT 100 was developed by Moscow's 3Detection Labs several years ago, and it's been helping Stepan study history, geography, and languages since September.

Priced at roughly $3,000, the R.BOT 100 moves around on a wheeled base and has a display, Web cam, microphone, speakers, and an Internet link so Stepan can interact with his classmates and teacher.

"I can change the robot's speed, to go slower or faster. I can move his head to look left or right. I really feel as if I am in the classroom," Stepan told Australia's Herald Sun.

In Texas, Lyndon Baty also goes to school through a robot surrogate. He suffers from polycystic kidney disease and has a severely impaired immune system, which confines him to home.

Lyndon attends class with the Vgo telepresence robot, which was released last year by Vgo Communications. With two-way video, audio, and a 10-hour battery, Vgo lets Lyndon roam around the halls of Knox City High School and interact with other students (see the video below)..."

Read the full story at its source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20030156-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Robot Teachers Invade Korean Schools!

2010-12-28T15:49:00.004-05:00

_______________From: Korea JoongAng Daily

Robot teachers with a human face
“Engkey” gives a lecture yesterday in Daegu. By Gong Jeong-sik
After years of hype, robot teachers have finally rolled into the classrooms.

The Daegu Office of Education introduced 29 robot teachers for English classes in 21 elementary schools - one of the largest rollouts in the world - and the bots strutted their stuff at a demonstration at Hakjung Elementary School yesterday, with about 150 government officials coming to get a look at the technology employed.

The 1-meter (3.28 feet) egg-shaped robot, named “Engkey” (an abbreviation of English key), spoke, asked questions and conversed in English with students, and even entertained the crowd by dancing to music.

“It is awesome and interesting,” marveled Sim Geun-hae, a third-grade student who participated in the demonstration class. “I felt I could learn English better [if it becomes my teacher].”

In fact, the robo-teachers aren’t mere chips, wheels and gears. Within each of them, in a sense, is a real human teacher controlling the machine by remote from the Philippines. The teachers in the Philippines have cameras to record their faces - which show up on a flat panel screen that forms the robo-teacher’s face - and they can also see the Korean students through a camera installed in the robot. Basically, the robot is a rolling Internet link between students and teacher, although the human teacher can also command the robot to make human gestures with its arms and wheels.

“The robots will teach students in after-school programs, not in regular classes,” Kim Mi-yong, an official at the education office, said. “The robot can handle only a small number of students per class, about eight students.”

The education office said Korean teachers can use the robots as assistant teachers for English classes, too.

The robots were invented by the Center for Intelligent Robotics under the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and the Daegu city government, the Daegu Office of Education and the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy spent roughly 1.6 billion won ($1.39 million) for the units.

The English-speaking robot has already made headlines in the foreign media. Time magazine dubbed it one of the 50 best inventions of 2010.

Read the full article at its source: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2930207

RoboCop Comes Home

2010-11-08T08:15:00.006-05:00

Protecting Your Home From Afar With a Robot
Photo from NY Times

When Robert Oschler, a programmer, leaves his home, he knows it is secure. And if he ever has cause for concern, he can open his laptop and survey the house through the eyes of his watchdogs.

“I don’t have any pets. I just have pet robots, and they’re pretty well behaved,” Mr. Oschler said. “Fortunately I’ve never logged in and seen a human face.”

His robot, a modified version of the Rovio from WowWee, has a camera, microphone and speakers atop a three-wheeled platform. From anywhere with a Net connection, he can send his robot zipping around the house, returning a video signal along the way.

“As creepy as it sounds, you could even talk to the guy and say, ‘Get out of there. There’s nothing valuable. I’m calling the police,’ ” he said.

For all its power and ability, the Rovio is usually found in a store’s toy section for about $170. Other robots from toy makers, like Meccano, are there as well. Outfitting a house with a fleet of robot guards is no longer just for those with the wealth of Bond villains.

Home security is blossoming for toy makers who can match the technical power and flexibility of the computer industry with the mass-market prices that come from large production runs. Low prices are a trade-off, however, because many people find that the reliability of the lower-priced robots is adequate for home experimentation but far from ready for a task like guarding Fort Knox.

“You should buy two,” said Mr. Oschler, who lives in South Florida.

The off-the-shelf unit is ready to explore after a simple installation involving the computer, but Mr. Oschler added a few enhancements to the software, which he distributes at robodance.com. His version improves the audio and video quality and offers more sophisticated programming options that create routines and paths for the robots to follow.

Mr. Oschler has even wired his robot to a headset that picks up the subtle electrical activity produced by his brain.

“When I tilt my head, the robot goes left. When you do that, it’s a Matrix-like moment,” he said proudly.

Other robot owners have modified their guard-bots, too. Peter Redmer, of Illinois, a online community manager at robocommunity.com, said his site gathered the collective wisdom of the toy robots. One hobbyist in China, Qiaosong Wang, posted pictures of his Rovio after he added a small fire extinguisher and software that can detect the shape of fire.

“One of the goals is to create something that the consumer can enjoy without pricing it at $5,000 or $10,000 with military-grade technology,” Mr. Redmer said.

Others have experimented with adding software for aiming the camera or enhancements like better lights for patrolling at night.

Mr. Redmer said he was most interested lately in the Parrot AR.Drone, a flying robot priced at $300. “It flies. How much cooler does it get?” he asked.

Not all of the innovation is attached to something that moves. Several companies are matching sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms with video cameras. These systems monitor the video feed and sound alarms when objects of a certain shape appear.

I tried some software called Vitamin D that lets me watch my office. It raises flags — by beeping — whenever anyone walks in. It requires a computer and detects video signals from attached cameras. (A single-camera version is free, and the cost can rise to $199, at vitamindinc.com.)

Archerfish makes surveillance cameras with sophisticated filters for detecting and distinguishing people, vehicles and other random movement. The models, at myarcherfish.com, include either one or four cameras for $400 to $1,400.

I also spent some time with a Spykee, a robot made by the French company Meccano that sells toys in the United States under the brand name Erector. Several models of Spykee robots are at spykeeworld.com, for $110 to $300.

The company, perhaps best known for its Erector sets, designed the Spykee as a kit that required some basic assembly. The essential gears and electronics come in a prebuilt base, and attaching the arms takes an hour or so.

“It’s a toy, but many people use it as surveillance robot,” said Jennifer Briand, the product manager for Spykee. By aiming at children, Ms. Briand said, “We wanted a product that they could drive on their own like a spy, play jokes on their brothers and sisters, and protect their bedroom because at that age they don’t like their sister coming in.”

Still, she said the use as a surveillance robot was a bit of a surprise..."

Read the full article at its source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/technology/personaltech/04basics.html?ref=technology

May I please have the hall pass, Mr. Roboto?

2010-11-03T16:58:00.002-04:00

"A Robot in Every Korean Kindergarten by 2013?"

If you want humans to fear and respect their robot overlords you have to start early. Elementary school children in Korea in the cities of Masan and Daegu are among the first to be exposed to robotic teachers. Among them is a robotic English instructor named EngKey developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). EngKey can hold scripted conversations with students to help them improve their language skills, or a modified version can act as a telepresence tool to allow distant teachers to interact with children. The arrival of EngKey to Masan and Daegu is just a small step in the mechanization of Korean classrooms: the Education Ministry wants all 8400 kindergartens in the nation to have robotic instructors by the end of 2013. Watch out kids, you don’t want to misbehave when your teacher can crush you in its metallic grip.

EngKey can be a harsh mistress. This child mispronounced his sentence and was told to repeat it. Don't worry kid, just go off script and you'll cause the bot to fry a wire.
As we reported earlier in the year, Korea has been looking to expand the role of robotic assistants in classrooms. Most models, including EngKey, act primarily in support roles for real human teachers. Rightfully so. EngKey can’t handle improvisation, and students must follow a script carefully when practicing their pronunciation with the robot. The value of the bot comes in the student’s fascination and comfort with a toy-like device. Students aren’t intimidated as they may be with an adult, can more freely make mistakes, and hopefully, learn from them. Preschoolers seem to respond well to another robot used in classrooms, Genibo the dog. Teachers can use Genibo to show children dance and gymnastic moves, and their interest in the device helps maintain their attention through the lesson.

Of course, the novelty of robots can wear off with continued exposure, and I’m not sure about the longterm use of robots as attention-getting assistants. In second grade I really loved learning using audio books on a cassette, but I quickly figured out it was the same lectures as I normally got in the classroom, just captured on tape. Korea’s probably right to focus the first wave of their robotics programs at the youngest children. CNN reports that the Education Ministry is hoping to have 830 bots in preschools by year’s end. At that age, a robot may stay interesting for a longer time. Eventually, however, robots that can’t act like humans are going to have a hard time of instructing human children..."

Read the full article at its source:
http://singularityhub.com/2010/11/02/a-robot-in-every-korean-kindergarten-by-2013/

Another small step for man, but a giant leap for Robots!"

2010-11-03T09:03:00.003-04:00

>>>>>>>>>>Accessed from NY Times>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>NASA

"NASA’s Quest to Send a Robot to the Moon"
"For $150 billion, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration could have sent astronauts back to the Moon. The Obama administration judged that too expensive, and in September, Congress agreed to cancel the program.

For a fraction of that — less than $200 million, along with about $250 million for a rocket — NASA engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston say they can safely send a humanoid robot to the Moon. And they say they could accomplish that in a thousand days.

The idea, known as Project M, is almost a guerrilla effort within NASA, cooked up a year ago by Stephen J. Altemus, the chief engineer at Johnson. He tapped into discretionary money, pulled in engineers to work on it part time, and horse-traded with companies and other NASA units to undertake preliminary planning and tests. “We’re doing impossible things with really very little, if any, money whatsoever,” Mr. Altemus said.

A humanoid dextrous robot — at least the top half — already exists: Robonaut 2, developed by NASA and General Motors, is packed on the shuttle Discovery, scheduled for liftoff on Wednesday.

Bound for the International Space Station, it will be the first humanoid robot in space. It is to help with housekeeping chores at the space station as NASA learns how astronauts and robots can work together. Eventually, an upgraded Robonaut is to take part in spacewalks.

Project M also draws on other NASA projects that were already under way, including rocket engines that burn liquid oxygen and methane — a cheap and nontoxic fuel combination — and an automated landing system that could avoid rocks, cliffs and other hazards.

Integrating the technologies into working prototypes sped up development. “That’s the magic,” Mr. Altemus said. “A lot of times technologies end up in the lab cooking, and then there’s this valley of death where they never get to maturation or to flight.”

Project M’s planners say that a robot walking on the Moon would capture the imagination of students, just as the Apollo Moon landings inspired a generation of scientists and engineers 40 years ago..."
Read the full vesion of this story at its source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/science/space/02robot.html?ref=science

Can't be there in person? Send Your ROBOT!

2010-09-05T07:00:00.002-04:00

"Smarter Than You Think
The Boss Is Robotic, and Rolling Up Behind You..."

"...SACRAMENTO — Dr. Alan Shatzel’s pager beeped at 9 on a Saturday morning. A man had suffered a stroke, and someone had to decide, quickly, whether to give him an anticlotting drug that could mean the difference between life and death.

Dr. Shatzel, a neurologist, hustled not to the emergency room where the patient lay — 260 miles away, in Bakersfield — but to a darkened room at a hospital here. He took a seat in front of the latest tools of his trade: computer monitors, a keyboard and a joystick that control his assistant on the scene — a robot on wheels.

He guided the roughly five-foot-tall machine, which has a large monitor as its “head,” into the patient’s room in Bakersfield. Dr. Shatzel’s face appeared on screen, and his voice issued from a speaker. Dr. Shatzel acknowledged the nurse and introduced himself to the patient’s grandson, explaining that he would question the patient to determine whether he was a candidate for the drug. The robot’s stereophonic hearing conveyed the answers. Using the hypersensitive camera on the monitor, Dr. Shatzel zoomed in and out and swung the display left and right, much as if he were turning his head to look around the room.

For years, the military and law enforcement agencies have used specialized robots to disarm bombs and carry out other dangerous missions. This summer, such systems helped seal a BP well a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Now, with rapidly falling costs, the next frontiers are the office, the hospital and the home..."

Read the full article at its source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/science/05robots.html

Robots to Clean Oil Spills

2010-08-25T09:45:00.006-04:00

from NY Times...

"Will Robots Clean Up Future Oil Spills?

...One result of the recent undersea oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is the emergence of a hot market for remedial technologies that go beyond the hapless boom-burn-disperse approach traditionally used to handle such spills.

Ocean Therapy Solutions, the maker of the oil-separating centrifuge system backed by the actor Kevin Costner, saw its devices deployed by BP’s cleanup and containment teams in June. Scientists from Tel Aviv University, meanwhile, have been touting the virtues of oil-hungry bacteria they grow in their lab. This sort of “bioremediation,” according to ScienceDaily, could help “clean the hard-to-reach oil pockets that occur when oil mixes with sand and organic matter on beaches and forms a thin layer on the gulf’s precious waterways.”

But technophiles might be most delighted by a coming innovation from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: swarms of oil-absorbing robots. Carlo Ratti and Assaf Biderman — the director and associate director, respectively, of M.I.T.’s Senseable City Lab — plan to unveil a prototype of their SeaSwarm technology at this week’s Venice Biennale festival of architecture, which has nanotechnology as its central theme. An oil-absorbing, nano-fiber belt churns though the unit’s head, where absorbed oil is removed.

The device is essentially a 16-foot-long, 7-foot-wide solar-powered conveyor belt made of a previously developed, oil-slurping “nanowire mesh.” The paperlike material is capable of isolating and absorbing up to 20 times its weight in oil, according to the researchers. Stretched across rollers, the nanofiber belt propels the floating unit through the water while slowly skimming its surface. The belt cycles through the device’s head, where absorbed oil is heated and separated from the mesh, and then rotates back into the water to collect more oil.

Using the principles of swarm robotics, thousands of such devices, interacting and coordinating with one another using global-positioning and wireless technology, could quickly form “teams” and tackle a burgeoning surface spill with crack efficiency. Indeed, the researchers note that one of the problems SeaSwarm aims to overcome is the overwhelming amount of equipment and human coordination needed to combat a spill.

A robotic S.W.A.T. team 5,000 to 10,000 units strong, responding to real-time satellite data about the presence of oil, could lap up a surface spill like BP’s Macondo spill within a month, the researchers said. “If produced in large numbers, we believe that each unit should cost no more than $20,000,” Mr. Ratti said. That means that a leak similar in size to the BP spill could be contained for $100 million to $200 million — assuming the robots worked as advertised. A swarm of 10,000 such units, working together, could tackle a Macondo-sized oil spill in a month, the developers say.

In one design, Mr. Ratti explained by e-mail, the devices burn the oil they collect, so they can continue working uninterrupted. An alternative design, he said, would have individual robots occasionally breaking away to deposit their oil in large, GPS-tagged floating reservoirs. A tanker could come and fetch the oil later..."

Read the full article at it's source:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/will-robotss-clean-up-future-oil-spills/?ref=business

Student Created Robot Catches INTEL's Attention and ROCKS!

2010-02-13T07:34:00.002-05:00

as read on CNET's CRAVE Gadget Blog...
"Intel taps student's robot for processor demo

While I've always been a little scared of spiders, watching student Matt Bunting's hexapod robot dancing has all but cured me. Maybe it's the combination of the folk guitar and little leg sways in the below video, but all of a sudden, spiders (at least the robotic kind) look so damn cute.
Cuteness aside, the hexapod bot has gotten some attention from high places. Two days after Bunting, a University of Arizona electrical-engineering senior, posted a YouTube video of his bot, Intel ordered two of them to promote its Atom processors at trade shows and engineering meetings. The robot uses Intel's 1.60GHz Atom Z530 and US15W chipset. It runs on the Ubuntu open-source operating system.

The hexapod robot uses a Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe Webcam mounted on its front for vision. (Credit: Matt Bunting)
Bunting built the as-yet unnamed robot from spare parts as a final project for a UA class on cognitive robotics. A camera mounted on the front of the six-legged creature (each leg has three degrees of freedom) takes successive images, which are used to help Hex determine if it is moving forward, sideways, or backward or tilting.
By analyzing the visual feedback, the 14x17x8-inch robot adaptively "learns" how to most effectively achieve its forward-moving goal.
"One of the things I wanted to explore was the idea of reinforcement learning. What I wanted to do was not preprogram any of those walking algorithms, I wanted it to figure out how to walk straight forward on its own," Bunting said. "It has the ability to figure it out itself..."

Read the full article at its source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10450394-1.html

Students Design Robotic Shopping Cart

2009-11-09T07:25:00.003-05:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>From telegram.com
"WORCESTER — Whenever Ty N. Tremblay went to a supermarket, he noticed a problem: An elderly and disabled shopper seated in a motorized cart could only collect what would fill a small basket on the cart or would have to rely on someone else to follow with a large shopping carriage.

The solution? The Autonomous Shopping Cart, a robotic shopping carriage created by Mr. Tremblay and other Worcester Polytechnic Institute students that would follow any shopper through the aisles of a store. “That way the elderly don't have to push a shopping cart, the handicapped don't have to get in (a cart),” said Mr. Tremblay, or your kid doesn't push it into your ankles..."
Read the full article at its source: http://www.telegram.com/article/20091108/NEWS/911080416/0/NEWS02

POOL PLAYING ROBOT - Care to make this game a little more interesting?

2009-09-21T08:29:00.002-04:00

The pool-playing robot - another way for robots to defeat humans
from THE RIDICULANT
"In yet another small step towards the time when robots will be able to rise up and overthrow their human masters, scientists have taught a robot how to play pool.

'Deep Green' - named after Deep Blue, the chess-playing supercomputer that beat reigning world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 - was created by Robotics & Computer Vision lab at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, with the intention of it becoming good enough at shot-playing and game strategy that it can eventually beat a human..."

Read the full article at its source: http://theridiculant.metro.co.uk/2009/09/the-poolplaying-robot-another-way-for-robots-to-defeat-humans.html

ShpinMENSCH Goilemat

2009-09-16T18:20:00.005-04:00

WATCH: The Israeli robot who wants to be Spider-Man from HAARETZ.com
Even before the movie franchise existed, Spider-Man was known for his ability to scale great heights by shooting webs with his wrists that attach to buildings and allow him to swing for kilometers from one to the next. Spider-Man's agility recently inspired students in the robotics department at Ben-Gurion University to create a robot that can move like the superhero. The robot's prototype, which recently took its first steps in a video posted on YouTube, is called Spiderbot... read the full article at its source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1114694.html

Classroom Robotics Considered a Top STEM Resource for Teachers

2008-12-22T18:10:00.004-05:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Berkshire STEM Pipeline Resource Page:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>http://www.mcla.edu/pipeline/bp/newfile.php

From the Berkshire STEM Pipeline - a glowing review of Classroom Robotics (click on the link below for the full text of the review)

"Have you ever wanted more information about a particular subject? Were you able to find what you needed written in a book? Well, let me tell you that I just happened to pick a book titled, "Classroom Robotics Case Stories of 21st Century Instruction for Millennial Students", edited by Mark Gura and Kathleen P. King, as a last resort when I couldn't obtain one of my first three choices (always the case when you are looking for information on any topic, right?). I was in for a wonderful treat, which I hadn't expected, since I was still feeling quite glum at not getting one of my top picks on the subject of classroom robotics. My interest level in robotics increased when I attended a seminar at MCLA this fall, hence one of the reasons for my search for more on the topic. This book turned out to be just what I was looking for to help me understand many facets about classroom robotics which I had been intrigued with for some time. As the title suggested, I was expecting to read stories from teachers who had incorporated robotics in their classrooms. It was even more than just teachers' experiences! This was the wonderful treat! I had wanted to learn how to start robotics either in the classroom or as an after school program. Where did I start? How did I know which materials to choose? How does robotics fit into the fifth grade curriculum? I had so many questions- many of which were answered by reading this book. This book provided the best tool I could have hoped for as one of its main purposes was to reach out to people like myself just starting to explore the idea of classroom robotics..."

Classroom Robotics: Case Stories of 21st Century Instruction for Millennial Students

edited by Mark Gura and Kathleen P. King

reviewed by Paul Duhon, Lee Elementary School

Surgical Robots That Operate on You from the Inside

2008-12-01T09:21:00.006-05:00

StomachBot: Magnetic Self-Assembly of Swallowable Modular Robots

Found @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081129173859.htm:
"A Surgeon You Can Swallow"
"ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2008) — In the future, tablet-shaped robots could perform some surgical operations without injuring the body. A new publication by the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems of ETH Zurich shows how such surgical bio-microrobots might function.

Paolo Dario, Professor of Biomedical Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, explained the dawn of a new medical era in the September edition of the American financial magazine “The Economist”. Surgical operations with open wounds are increasingly being replaced by non-invasive techniques extending even to systems that enable operations without a single scar.

Bio-microrobotics has a decisive role in this development. Like the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, ETH Zurich is also a part of the EU’s ARES research project (Assembling Reconfigurable Endoluminal Surgical System), a consortium of robotics experts from four European higher education institutions. Together, the researchers want to make micro-robots usable for medical applications. The plan is that, in the future, robots no bigger than a conventional capsule will perform a series of tasks in the gastro-intestinal tract, e.g. a gastroscopy or a tissue biopsy.

Although pill-shaped micro-cameras have existed for seven years now and are currently being used successfully in surgery to study the gastro-intestinal tract, these systems are passive. The camera takes thousands of pictures as it passes through the gastro-intestinal tract, but its position during this time cannot be controlled. This should soon change, because the ARES scientists are currently developing micro-robots with controllable insect-like legs with which the “robot pills” would be able to move around in the stomach. Other groups are working on special devices for tissue biopsy. In the future, such instruments could be used to make a precise examination of damaged regions in the gastro-intestinal tract while at the same time taking tissue samples for subsequent investigation.

Multi-segment, self-assembling stomach robots
One of the biggest challenges facing the robotics scientists relates to the enormous miniaturisation of the electronic systems. Room for the system’s entire technology, including the power supply, must be found within a few cubic millimetres. In the micro-cameras that are already established, the battery alone takes up 60 percent of the capsule’s volume. Hence one key question: how can a series of surgical robot functions be brought into a form that the patient can swallow and which is at the same time compatible with the body?

In a recent publication, Zoltan Nagy, a doctoral student at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems of ETH Zurich (IRIS) since 2006, presents the following approach to a solution: the patient swallows not one but several “robot pills” fitted with individual functions, such as the controller or forceps for tissue sampling. The pills can be swallowed one after another and assemble themselves automatically to form a larger, more powerful system only when they reach the stomach. For this purpose, Nagy developed a magnetic mechanism that enables the parts of the robot to join together automatically in the stomach to form an entire system. The individual components are polarized at right angles to the surface, so they arrange themselves in a predictable sequence when they come together.

The system was tested in an artificial stomach with a 75 percent success rate. Because a rigid chain of several robot components moves only with difficulty through the stomach and intestine, Nagy has also developed intermediate links that make the system more mobile. This would enable the surgical system to move as a whole through the stomach and intestine, like a multi-link chain. A magnetic system has the added advantage that the magnetic field changes in a characteristic way when the individual members of the chain come together. This change is measurable and can be communicated to a computer and used as an indicator of the exact position and arrangement of the robot snake.

Probing the limits of feasibility..."

Reach this article in its entirety at its source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081129173859.htm

also read "Building a Self-Assembling Stomach-Bot" @ http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21401/page2/

Open Wide!

2008-11-11T05:23:00.004-05:00

..........................................From: thesouthern.com

"Robotics, orthodontics a winning combination"

"HERRIN - Patient satisfaction with orthodontic care has been enhanced greatly with the development of robotics. This new procedure, known as the SureSmile system, is being performed by only a handful of specialists in Illinois.Dr. Kyle R. Childers, who owns a practice at Logan Professional Park in Herrin, is one such specialist. He has spoken at seminars to inform fellow orthodontists and dentists of the technological advancement.

Childers said that instead of eyeballing a wire and bending it for the patient's braces by hand, he is able to maneuver the wire through robotics to the exact shape it needs to be to benefit the patient most.This custom-built wire is within 50 microns (width of a human hair) of perfection and allows Childers to move each of the patient's teeth to the target position."The finishing part or detail work is what takes the longest in orthodontics," Childers said.

To design the customized wire, a 3-D computer image of the patient's smile is scanned into the computer. Childers reviews the image, and with the help of the computer, determines the best position for the teeth..."

Read the full article @ its source: http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2008/11/08/business/26466966.txt

The Clothes Make The Man

2008-10-13T07:12:00.003-04:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From: The Herald Net

"Robot suit helps disabled people walk"
"TSUKUBA, Japan -- A robotic suit that reads brain signals and helps people with mobility problems will be available to rent in Japan for $2,200 a month -- an invention that may have far-reaching benefits for the disabled and elderly.

HAL -- short for "hybrid assistive limb" -- is a computerized suit with sensors that read brain signals directing limb movement through the skin.

The 22-pound battery-operated computer system is belted to the waist. It captures the brain signals and relays them to mechanical leg braces strapped to the thighs and knees, which then provide robotic assistance to people as they walk.

Cyberdyne, a new company in Tsukuba outside Tokyo, will mass-produce HAL. Two people demonstrated the suits at the company's headquarters on Tuesday.

A demonstration video also showed a partially paralyzed person getting up from a chair and walking slowly wearing the HAL suit.

"We are ready to present this to the world," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, a University of Tsukuba professor who designed HAL.

Sankai, who has worked on robot suits since 1992 and is also Cyberdyne's chief executive, said a full device that covers the entire body is also being designed, though it is unclear when it will be available commercially.

HAL comes in three sizes -- small, medium and large -- and also has a one-leg version for a 150,000 yen, or $1,500, monthly rental fee.

Noel Sharkey is a robotics expert not affiliated with the technology. The professor at the University of Sheffield in England said HAL will have wide-ranging benefits for the elderly others with movement disabilities.

"HAL can only lead to extending the abilities of the elderly and keep them out of care for longer," Sharkey said in an e-mail to The Associated Press..."
Read the full article @ its source:
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081012/BIZ/710129940

"Scientists think that, one day, robots could fool us into believing they were human"

2008-10-13T07:04:00.004-04:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>From: BBC News/Science

"Japanese develop 'female' android"
"Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet - a "female" android named Repliee Q1Expo.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner. She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human.

Repliee Q1Expo is not like any robot you will have seen before, at least outside of science-fiction movies. She is designed to look human and although she can only sit at present, she has 42 actuators in her upper body, powered by a nearby air compressor, programmed to allow her to move like a human.

We have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her
Prof Hiroshi Ishiguro"I have developed many robots before," Repliee Q1Expo's designer, Professor Ishiguro, told the BBC News website, "but I soon realised the importance of its appearance. A human-like appearance gives a robot a strong feeling of presence..."

Read the full article @ its source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm

Hello Mr. Chips

2008-10-09T16:45:00.003-04:00

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>From: Edutopia

"Rise of the Robots: Human-Machine Interaction Enhances Tech Teaching"

"Simpler to build, less expensive to buy, self-activating machines will become indispensable teaching tools.

Robots have long been the stuff of sci-fi movies, from the rabble-rousing fembot in Fritz Lang's classic silent film Metropolis to the maniacal micromanager HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Teutonic Terminator (who came back from the future to become governor of California). Film robots have been fecklessly funny (C-3PO) and ferocious (those evil Star Trek Borgs), yet what they all had in common was that they were fictional.

That was then.

Now, bots are hot, they're real, and they're a growing part of secondary school curriculum. Sebastian Thrun, a professor of engineering at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, leads a team at the school that competes in the DARPA Urban Challenge, where highly sophisticated robot cars must handle simulated real-world traffic conditions. Thrun sees an increasing number of freshmen entering Stanford with head starts in robotics. "I find that there's an enormous awareness and fascination with regard to robotics in the incoming student population," he says.

This awareness may start early, as Web sites such as Instructables.com offer information on how parents (or teachers) and kids can build small robots. The rise of robotics now showing up in school science curricula, often starting at the elementary school level, can be credited to inventor Dean Kamen, who launched the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition in 1989, in which student-designed robots engage in a last-bot-standing battle royale. Now, more than 32,000 students on 1,500 high school teams from all over the world have competed, and the FIRST Lego League and Junior FIRST Lego League have brought robotics to kids ages 6-16..."

Read the full article at its source:

http://www.edutopia.org/whats-next-2008-robotics-classroom

More News about BigDog

2008-09-15T08:27:00.003-04:00

From ZEENEWS.com

"Now, robodog to be the latest weapon! "

"...Modern battlefields may soon resemble something out of a science fiction flick, thanks to advances in robotics. And, the latest weapon to be unveiled is the robodog -- four-legged, petrol-powered robots.

Scientists have developed the 'BigDog', billed as "the most advanced quadruped robot on Earth", which they claim is able to carry up to four packs of military equipment on awkward terrain unsuitable for vehicles.

Standing at over 2ft tall and more than 3ft long, BigDog comes equipped with all manner of high-tech gadgets, including laser gyroscopes, a video camera sensor system and a sophisticated on-board computer, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

"Some of the wars we're engaged in now happen to have that kind of terrain. The idea is to look at the way nature has solved different robotics problems," Robert Mandelbaum, the Project Manager at Boston Dynamics, was quoted as saying.

According to the scientists, who have developed the robodog for the US Army, the 11-stone machine can trot along at up to four mph and would even stay on its legs when it is kicked hard in the side -- but, sadly, no wagging tail.

In fact, its legs are designed to work in a similar way to a real dog's, even storing energy in shock absorbers when a foot touches the ground.

The 14-million-pound BigDog project is currently being tested across a five-mile trail used to train the US Marine Corps, carrying the soldiers' equipment to prove that it can cope with holes, steep slopes and water hazards.

However, the scientists are also planning to use the technology for non-military purposes..."

Read this article @ its source: http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=469087&sid=env&ssid=365

The Robots Rule, Eat Flies, etc.

2008-06-23T06:45:00.002-04:00

From: Telegraph.com.uk
The world’s six most useful robots
1 EcoBot
A revolution in robotics. The robot, developed at the University of Bristol, is designed to power itself by eating flies. Feed the EcoBot a dead bluebottle every so often, and it will digest the insect in one of its eight microbial fuel cells, each filled with sewage slurry teeming with bacteria. A sugar compound in the fly's exoskeleton is extracted and metabolised by the bacteria to generate energy, which is turned into electricity. 'The idea is that it could go places we don't or can't go and send back information,' says Ioannis Ieropoulos of the EcoBot team. It might take temperature readings, or toxic gas measurements. For now EcoBot's achievements seem modest. In endurance tests, eight flies lasted the bot for 12 days, but it only moved for a few seconds every 14 minutes. And its developers aren't sure how it will attract its food. It's not yet WALL-E, nor is it autonomous, but it's on the way.

2 Big Dog
It may be the best known kick on the internet. A man in a car park kicks a strange, spooky, headless thing with four legs. The thing staggers, then it rights itself. The thing is a robot; the humming noise, the engine that powers it. Made by Boston Dynamics and partly funded by the Pentagon outfit that brought us the internet, Big Dog is designed to be a military pack animal. It is powered by a gas engine, has a ball for each foot, and can walk or trot at a maximum of four mph. It can distinguish terrain, carry 165lb and cross ditches.

3 Robonaut
It's either an advanced piece of space robotics, or Boba Fett on a skateboard. Robonaut, with its 'centurion-inspired' helmet, is Nasa's star robot. Its torso is meant to look human, but not too much: research shows that humanoid robots can only look so human before humans freak out. 'Robonaut was designed to work with the same tools and interfaces that have been built for an astronaut's gloved hand,' says Ron Diftler, project manager at Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston. Eventually, it will 'assist astronauts with tasks the same way a nurse helps a doctor, and provide maintenance on lunar or Martian bases between astronaut visits.'

4 NeuroArm
Last month, a Canadian woman became the first person to have a robot's hands inside her head. Controlled by a neurosurgeon at a computer workstation, neuroArm worked for nine hours to remove a tumour from Paige Nickason's head. NeuroArm, developed at the University of Calgary, has a sense of touch, a necessity in brain surgery, where surgeons judge how to proceed by how soft the brain is. And for precision, the two robotic arms are peerless.

5 Wakamuru
This rotund, yellow, black-eyed robot, launched by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2005, was the first properly useful helper robot for the home. It can talk to its elderly owner; recognise faces and voices; download from the net and relay the news out loud; and send an urgent call to a hospital or police station.

6 Swarm robots
If you have a problem with creepy-crawlies, look away now. These tiny, sugar-cubed sized robots, developed by the EU-funded Symbrion project, work like insects, grouping themselves into a mass, then reconfiguring into the most useful position. They can power each other, and will soon be able to home in on the nearest 220V socket to charge themselves. Swarm robots could be sent into earthquake zones, where they could get into small spaces to sense survivors, or form chains back to rescue-workers.

Read this article @ its source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/06/22/sv_sixrobots.xml

Monkeys and Robots... A Powerful Pairing!!!

2008-06-11T08:24:00.002-04:00

Mind over matter: monkeys control robots with brain power

PARIS (AFP) — Scientists have trained monkeys to manipulate a robotic arm solely with brain power, and could soon help amputees and paralysed stroke victims do the same, according to a study released Wednesday.

Immobilised monkeys with electrode filaments inserted into their cerebral cortext learned in only days to reach out with the free-standing prosthesis, pluck a tasty morsel with a pincer-like claw, and pop it in their mouths. When the path of the arm -- positioned next to the shoulder -- was deliberately blocked, the animals simply willed it around the obstacle with their minds, says the study, published in Nature.

"The entire task is now performed with brain control," Andrew Schwartz, the lead researcher and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, told AFP.

In preliminary experiments, also with Macaca mulatta monkeys, computers assisted with various parts of the task, he explained. The study's findings are the first reported use of a so-called "brain-machine interface" (BMI) to perform a practical action in three dimensions -- in this case feeding oneself -- purely via brain control of a computerized arm, noted John Kalaska, an expert on the central nervous system at the University of Montreal.

Strokes, spinal cord injuries and degenerative neuromuscular diseases cripple tens of thousands of people every year, rendering the simplest of actions -- opening a door, scratching an itch, drinking a glass of water -- frustratingly difficult or impossible.

Those afflicted with the most severe form of paralysis, known as locked-in syndrome, are fully-conscious prisoners inside a body that no longer responds to the most basic of commands.
"These patients are still able to produce the brain activity that would normally result in voluntary movements," explained Kalaska.

"But their condition prevents those signals from either getting to the muscles or activating them," he said in a commentary, also in Nature.
Schwartz's experiments provide the most tantalising hope to date that paralysis victims can one day short-circuit their own nervous system by hardwiring their brains directly to a computerized robot.

"Hopefully we will be implanting microelectrode arrays [in humans] in the next two years," Schwartz told AFP.

"At that point it should be relatively easy to perform this kind of task," he said.
In the meantime, Schwartz and his team are making improvements on the robotic arm, adding points of articulation in the wrist and hand to the five already built in -- three at the shoulder, one at the elbow, and one at the hand.

This does not mean that "neuroprosthetic robots will soon be available at the local rehabilitation clinic," cautions Kalakska, who says several barriers remain before such devices can be easily deployed.

The long-term reliability of the electrodes -- about the breadth of a human hair -- must be vastly improved.

Read the full article at its source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8pi7_DK8vGhioLelLVPjuspFy5A

Robo-Ladies of Note

2008-06-07T11:37:00.002-04:00

The amazingly realistic female android, named Actroid DER 2, was demonstrated at the AKIBA Robot Festival here in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. For more information visit Robots Dreams at http://www.robots-dreams.com/

Through Brain Power Man Makes Himself Iron Man...FOR REAL!

2008-05-22T12:52:00.008-04:00

From: The Salt Lake Tribune

'Iron Man' comes to life in super soldier prototype

"Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, and plays tennis and skis when time allows. But the 5-foot-11, 180-pound software engineer is lucky if he presses 200 pounds - that is, until he steps into an ''exoskeleton'' of aluminum and electronics that multiplies his strength and endurance as many as 20 times.

With the outfit's claw-like metal hand extensions, he gripped a weight set's bar at a recent demonstration and knocked off hundreds of repetitions. Once, he did 500. ''Everyone gets bored much more quickly than I get tired,'' Jameson said. Jameson - who works for robotics firm Sarcos Inc. in Salt Lake City, which is under contract with the U.S. Army - is helping assess the 150-pound suit's viability for the soldiers of tomorrow. The suit works by sensing every movement the wearer makes and almost instantly amplifying it.

The Army believes soldiers may someday wear the suits in combat, but it's focusing for now on applications such as loading cargo or repairing heavy equipment. Sarcos is developing the technology under a two-year contract worth up to $10 million, and the Army plans initial field tests next year. Before the technology can become practical, the developers must overcome cost barriers and extend the suit's battery life. Jameson was tethered to power cords during his demonstration because the current battery lasts just 30 minutes.

But the technology already offers evidence that robotics can amplify human muscle power in reality - not just in the realm of comic books and movies like the recently debuted ''Iron Man,'' about a wealthy weapons designer who builds a high-tech suit to battle bad guys. ''Everybody likes the idea of being a superhero, and this is all about expanding the capabilities of a human,'' said Stephen Jacobsen, chief designer of the Sarcos suit..."

Read full article @ its source: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_9306288

ASIMO Conducts Detroit Symphony as Young Musicians Watch

2008-05-16T06:40:00.003-04:00

FROM: Washington Post .com
For the Kids, Robot Conducts in the Key of Cool
"DETROIT -- Classical music enthusiasts long have sought to drum up support for the musical genre among young people, and now they have a secret weapon: a 4-foot-3 childlike robot.
On Wednesday, the day after the Honda robot ASIMO conducted the Detroit Symphony, it warmed up a crowd of 250 students who came to the concert hall to watch a master class with cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

ASIMO -- which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility -- ran, danced and kicked a soccer ball. "It was phenomenal. I had no idea of the level people were developing robots," said Sam Pernick, a 16-year-old cellist from the Detroit suburb Huntington Woods.
Eric Hwu, 14, a fellow musician from Bloomfield Hills, said he thinks a robot could potentially play a musical instrument, but in the meantime, ASIMO could get kids excited about technology.
"A lot of kids I know think robots are cool," he said.
Honda, which has been developing humanoid robots since the mid-1980s, brought ASIMO and Ma to Detroit as part of its recent $1 million donation to the orchestra for music education efforts. The donation will pay for introductory music training and outreach in schools and will help young musicians get access to instruments and private lessons.

Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Detroit orchestra (as well as the National Symphony Orchestra), said ASIMO can serve as a kind of mascot for the city's efforts, since it relates well to younger people. But he joked to the students that he's not concerned about losing his job to a robot.

ASIMO impressed both the students and the symphony's musicians with its fluid, humanlike movements. But it can only mimic the actions of a previously videotaped conductor and can't respond to musicians. If the horns come in late or the orchestra speeds up, ASIMO can't change course in the middle of a piece.

"Ultimately, a great orchestra like Detroit's, with great instruments playing in a great hall -- technology is not ever going to replace that," said Larry Hutchinson, a bassist with the symphony..."

Read the full article at its source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/14/AR2008051403619.html

This Bot Tacks & Jibes and Doesn't Get Sea Sick

2008-05-12T15:15:00.003-04:00

From: ZDnet
A sailing robot to cross the Atlantic
"The Times of London reports that seven robotic craft will compete in a race across the Atlantic Ocean in October 2008. One of them, ‘Pinta the robot sailing boat,’ has been designed at Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK. Pinta is expected to sail for three months at a maximum speed of four knots (about 4.6 mph or 7.4 kilometers per hour). Its designers hope the Pinta will become the first robot to cross an ocean using only wind power. This 150-kilogram sailing robot costs only £2,500 (US $4,900 or €3,200). The transatlantic race will start between September 29 and October 5, 2008 from Viana do Castelo, Portugal. The winner will be the first boat to reach a finishing line between the Northern tip of St. Lucia and the Southern tip of Martinique in the Caribbean…"

Read the full article @ its source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=919

Are you listening, lawn toy? You missed that weed patch!

2008-05-08T15:56:00.003-04:00

From: New York Times
CIRCUITS The Robotic Lawn Mower Will Take Your Call Now
"Using your cellphone ... to mow your lawn?
Owners of Kyodo America’s newest robotic lawn mower, the LawnBott LB3500, can program the little guy using a Bluetooth-equipped mobile phone, telling the mower when to leave its docking station and run around your estate, happily chewing up the grass while you sip a mint julep.
The $3,249 device can mow up to an acre out of the box — and two acres if you add two more lithium-ion batteries. A guy wire tacked around your property’s perimeter keeps the LawnBott from straying into your neighbor’s yard.
You can program the number of times per day and days per week that the LawnBott should mow, either by entering information on its screen or by using a Java program downloaded to your phone. One glitch is that Kyodo America says that an incompatibility between Bluetooth technologies in Europe and the United States means that it will be a few months before the phone features work here. Meanwhile, if you need to impress your friends, you can always accessorize the LawnBott with a $79 pair of spiked wheels. ERIC A. TAUB"
Read this article @ it's source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/technology/personaltech/08mower.html?_r=1&8cir&emc=cirb1&oref=slogin

Robotic Exoskeleton Suits to Make Everyman Iron Man

2008-05-07T06:43:00.002-04:00

Real Life Iron Man Suits
"As the old saying goes: the suit makes the man; never will this maxim resonate so well, than when referring to bionic exoskeleton suits. They’ll not only make you the man, they’ll make you superhuman.

Yes, picture this for a second. Imagine walking at an average speed of 20 miles an hour, lifting 300lbs weights as if they weighed only 10 and being able to leap 20-30 feet in the air. Imagine having a bionic extension that shadowed your every move.
You might be thinking that this could only be achieved in comic books, or in glossy Hollywood blockbusters like Iron man or the 1959 epic Starship Troopers. Frighteningly however, robotics has come a long way thanks to the archetypal bunch of mad scientists and inventors, working away in their laboratories.

The reality of an army of indestructible soldiers wearing exoskeleton suits may come sooner than you think. No longer are exoskeleton suits merely wearable joysticks. At long last, robotics is combining our decision-making processes with the dexterity and brute force of the machines. In other words, the mind controls the metal.

However much this might sound like the plot of a bad science fiction movie, the rabbit hole goes deeper. The US Pentagon’s DARPA or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has invested $50 million in robotic exoskeleton projects.

The question to ask then, is will we see a bionic army, roaming the battlefields of the future or will there be some unexpected twist?..."

Read the Full Article @ Its Source (Environmental Graffiti):
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/sciencetech/5-bionic-exoskeleton-suits-of-the-future/1137

Science Fair Was Never Like This! - Middle School Kids Develop Prosthetic Hand for Limbless Peer!!!

2008-05-06T07:50:00.002-04:00

From: ABC local / KFSN
Porterville, CA (KFSN) -- A little boy with no hands and only one foot got a special gift from some Burton Middle School students. The students developed and constructed their own prosthetic hand that helps him write
" The six students had just gotten back from an international science competition when they heard Matthew Lane's story. They decided to help him out. Little did they know, they gave him a new tool that would change all of their lives.
Nine year old Matthew Lane throws around a football with ease. He's playing with new friends who've just made his life a little easier.
Matthew Lane says to the students, "Thank you, dudes!"

Matthew was born with no hands and only one foot. He used to write using the ends of his arms. These six students used leather, rubber and tools in their robotics classroom to make a prosthetic hand to help Matthew write..."
Read the full article at its source:
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6114230

Wall*E @ a Store Near You Soon!

2008-05-01T23:40:00.001-04:00

From: Wired Blog

Wall*E Robot Toy to Debut This Weekend at Maker Faire Event

"If you're going to the Maker Faire this weekend, you'll be treated with the first of what could be a cool new line of robotic toys from Disney, starting with a Wall*E robot from the upcoming movie of the same name. And if you know anything about the pioneering history of robotics from the company, from Walt himself on down to the current Imagineers, you have a right to be pretty excited . . . to be able to show it to your kids. Maybe you could juice him (it?) up, hack it up, and make it speak a few special un-PG words. The little kids will love that.
The robots will come from the Disney Consumer Products (DCP) outfit in collaboration with Pixar, Thinkway Toys, and ">WoWee. They are also working on bringing a Tinkerbell-inspired robot dancing boombox later this fall. The Wall*E is scheduled to come in the summer, presumably around the date of the movie, and be priced around $24.99..."

Read full article at its source: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/walle-robot-toy.html

LEGO Mindstorms Inducted into Robot Hall of Fame

2008-04-15T18:17:00.002-04:00

From: The Tartan

SCS’ Robot Hall of Fame inducts four new robots
“When the robots take over, we want them to remember that we were the first ones to appreciate them,” Morris said jokingly. The School of Computer Science established the Robot Hall of Fame to honor real and fictional robots in our society. There are two categories in which robots receive honors: Robots from Science and Robots from Science Fiction.

Robots in the science category must have served an actual or potentially useful function and demonstrated real skills in accomplishing their purpose. Robots in the fictional category must have received worldwide fame, inspired others to build real robots, and helped form opinions about the functions and value of robots.

The first robots to be inducted into the Hall of Fame were NASA’s Mars Pathfinder Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX), better known as “Sojourner”; Unimate, the first industrial robot; R2-D2, a droid from the Star Wars movies; and the evil HAL-9000 computer, featured in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, created by science fiction writer and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick.

Any robot may be nominated for the Robot Hall of Fame, Morris said. Inductees are then chosen by an international jury of leading thinkers and technology developers. The four robots being inducted this year — Lt. Cmdr. Data, the Raibert Hopper, LEGO Mindstorms, NavLab5 — were announced last May at the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition in Boston..."

Read the full article @ its source: http://www.thetartan.org/2008/4/14/scitech/robothalloffame

ROBOFEST NYC 2008 - A Successful New Robotics Event for Students in the New York City Area

2008-04-13T18:07:00.004-04:00

From: The New York Times
ROBOFEST NYC In science fiction robots don’t have much fun. If they’re not determinedly trying to conquer humankind, they’re officiously serving it. But the real robots invading Sony Wonder Technology Lab on Saturday will be much more playful: they swing, they wave, they gyrate to music, they rock out.
These robots are literally dancing machines. Created by children ages 6 to 12, they are part of the first RoboFest NYC: Dancing With the Robostars, a competition as much about sizzle as it is about science. Although it features the same building materials — the Lego Mindstorms Robotics system — as many other robotics contests, it is far less regimented, said Laura Allen, the festival’s founder and president of Vision Education & Media, a New York company whose programs introduce children to technology. “We’re more like Woodstock,” she explained...
Read the full article @ its source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/arts/11wkids.html?ex=1208577600&en=fae34f5facdcd1c9&ei=5070&emc=eta1

RoboFest NYC event website: http://visionedinc.org/robofest/about-robofest.php

iDog Becomes a Featured Discussion on The Teachers Podcast!

2008-04-13T09:20:00.002-04:00

Listen to Episode #15 of The Teachers Podcast for a Discussion of iDog as Educational Technology @ http://www.teacherspodcast.org/

Not familiar with iDog? Check out the following...

Also:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDog

- http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=browse&product_id=16724

- http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=419

Robot Evolution - Sorry Creationists :)

2008-04-07T09:01:00.003-04:00

From: The Financial Express

Android Robots are the Future

"Robots have come a long way since the day the first robot was built in 1927. Nowadays, these machines are used as surgery robots, service robots, and military robots. It is startling to learn that scientists are now trying to make robots human-like by infusing emotions and expressions onto them. However, eyebrows are raised about their misuse too. “Criminals in the US now use robot submarines and aircraft to smuggle drugs. This misuse can cause human life an enormous damage, to an extent we cannot even imagine,” says Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Sheffield, UK. His proposed remedy: setting up of an international body to lay down the code of ethics. On his recent visit to India, Rachana Khanzode caught up with the British computer scientist to know his views on the future of robots and their benefits to mankind. Excerpts:

How have robots evolved over a period of time?
The first useful robot was ‘Televox’, which was developed way back in 1927, and was used in electrical substations. Then in 1930, we saw traffic light robots and the first commercial robot arms were used in car manufacturing in 1950. And now, we have science fiction robots. That was when we saw the commercialisation. Today we have semi-autonomous robots—surgery robots, service robots, and military robots that are used in various industries viz. automotive, electronic petrochemical and military operations. Android robots are the future.
Scientists are trying to make them look realistic..."

Read the full article @ its source:
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/-Android-robots-are-the-future-/293483/

Integrating Robotics into Core Instruction: LEGO takes a robotics step in Texas

2008-04-04T11:21:00.002-04:00

From: RedOrbit

Kids Get a Kick Out of Building Robots
"SOUTHLAKE -- Students say it's not about playing around in class.
But they can't deny it's awesome to build Lego robots -- one that kicks a paper ball into a miniature soccer goal and another that tries to block it -- and control them with their laptop computers.

Durham Elementary is among five schools nationwide chosen as test sites for Lego Education's science-based robotics set for elementary schoolchildren. The company plans 12 robot sets, to be marketed to teachers and school districts, in early 2009.

Durham will receive a free classroom set after the product is released.
"This is amazing. Robotics is the future," said J.P. Reppeto, 9, a third-grader. "In cartoons, comics, pretty much anything interesting has something to do with robots. That's what you think of when you think of the future."

Each week, pairs of students in second, third and fourth grades build a different robot from a kit. The robots are made from colorful Lego parts and are powered by a tiny motor and motion-detection sensor attached by cable to a laptop computer, said Nancy Peterson, director of market research for Lego Education, in Pittsburg, Kan.

The first week, students built a mechanical kicker and programmed the computer to make its leg kick a ball of paper.

This week, students made a soccer goal and mechanical goalkeeper. The goalie, attached to a mechanical arm, moves back and forth in front of the goal to block the balls lobbed by the kicker. The computer keeps score.

Lego wants to find out which models are best for each age, Peterson said.
"We are looking to put something into the hands that is easy for every student to pick up and to have success," Peterson said..."

Read the full article @ its source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1314146/kids_get_a_kick_out_of_building_robots/index.html?source=r_technology#

Classroom Robotics (the book)

2008-03-22T15:24:00.003-04:00

Classroom Robotics
Case Stories of 21st Century Instruction for Millennial Students
Edited by: Mark Gura, Fordham University and
Kathleen P. King, Fordham University 2007
A volume in the series: Instructional Innovations in Teaching and Learning.
Series Editor(s): Kathleen P. King, Fordham University and Mark Gura, Fordham University
ORDER ONLINE
http://www.transformationed.com/
Paperback $39.99ISBN: 978-1-59311-839-6T
Hardcover $73.99ISBN: 978-1-59311-659-0
ORDER DIRECT from AUTHOR
Transformationed@gmail.com
10% discount and autographed by King and Gura if requested

Hallmarks of Classroom Robotics
· Chapters written by current and former NYS teachers
· Case stories, practice means theory, curricular suggestions
· Application of robotics across content areas
· Based on our work that brought student robotics practice competitions to the Bronx
· Adopted as textbook at teacher education colleges in New York state
· Already available in 46 libraries around the world (CA, NY, WY, TX, IA, PA, MA, VA, GA, AL, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada and many more)

CONTENTS: Dedication. Preface, Kathleen P. King. PART I: CLASSROOM ROBOTICS BASICS. What is Student Robotics? Mark Gura. Student Robotics: A Model for 21st Century Learning, Mark Gura. PART II: CASE STORIES. Not Your Average "Soccer Mom." Carol Franken. Changing the Inner City, One Robot at a Time, Evan Weinberg. PB&J, Robotics, and Programming, Agata Dean. Teaching, Coaching, and Parenting RoboCup Jr., Laura Allen. From LOGO to LEGO Robotics? A Journey, Phil Firsenbaum. The Morris High School Robotics Team: An Interview: Winners at a High-Intensity Sport for the Mind, Mark Gura. Power of Robotics in the Lives and Learning of Alternative High School Students, Albert Robinson, Kathleen P. King, and Ryan Thompson. Bringing Robotics to Life: Students Experience Life Sciences with Real World Medical Applications, Joselyn J. Todd and Eric Himburg. PART III: PERSPECTIVES ON ROBOTICS AND LEARNING. Robotics-Prime Opportunities for Careers and Student Learning, Kathleen P. King. Learning and Literacy in Robots-Making Connection for the Classroom, Steven D'Agustino. Catching the Vision, Teachers as Learners: Robotics Professional Development, Steven D'Agustino and Kathleen P. King. PART IV: RESOURCES AND CONCLUSION. Student and Classroom Robotics Equipment: Robotics Kits, Components and Material, Mark Gura. Information Resources for Student and Classroom Robotics: Web Sites, Magazines and Resources, Mark Gura. Program and Curriculum Resources for Student and Classroom Robotics: Organizations, Software and Curriculum, Mark Gura. Conclusion and Beginnings, Kathleen P. King. About the Authors. Index.

Robots to now perform surgery on youngsters!

2008-03-11T08:34:00.003-04:00

From: Khaleez Times online

Robotics surgery for children discussed

"ABU DHABI — Robotics surgery for children was debated yesterday by an elite panel of international experts attending the UAE Paediatric Surgeons Conference, first of its kind to be hosted by Abu Dhabi.

The three-day conference themed 'Kids' Safety in the UAE and the Arab World' has been organised by the Medical Services Department in the UAE Armed Forces, in cooperation with the Emirates Medical Association (EMA) and the Arab Association of Paediatric Surgeons.

Delicate surgeries for children will take place at Shaikh Zayed Military Hospital on the sidelines of the conference and will be transmitted live so as to enable international experts from France and other European countries to take part in the operations.

About 80 scientific research papers pertaining to child health and seven sessions will be dedicated to shed light on minimal invasive surgery and robotics surgery, in addition to child abuse, safety and trauma. Participants will be accredited 21 hours of Continued Medical Education (CME) certificate by the American CME Academy.

The participants will discuss a proposal to initiate an annual award named 'Shaikh Zayed Award' for the best Arab paediatric surgeon. A project to set up the first Gulf association of paediatric surgeons, will also be discussed during the conference."

Read article at its source:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2008/March/theuae_March240.xml&section=theuae&col=

Warrior Robots? Let's Be Careful What We Wish for...

2008-03-04T08:23:00.003-05:00

From: The Star
Sheffield expert claims risk from warrior robots
"TERMINATOR-style robot warriors could soon be stalking the earth as a result of a new automated arms race, according to a Sheffield University boffin.
Professor Noel Sharkey, well known for his appearances on hit TV shows Robot Wars, believes the new generation of weapons being developed around the world pose a real threat to humanity.The robotics expert told the Royal United Services Institute he believed it would not be long before robots became a terrorist weapon to replace the suicide bomber.Many nations are now involved in developing the technology for robot weapons, with the US Department of Defence being the most significant player.According to expert journals the US proposes to spend an estimated $4 billion by 2010 on unmanned systems technology. The total spending is expected to rise above $24 billion.Prof Sharkey said: "The trouble is we can't put the genie back in the bottle. Once the new weapons are out there, they will be fairly easy to copy. How long is it going to be before terrorists get in on the act?"With the prices of robot construction falling dramatically and the availability of ready-made components for the amateur market, it wouldn't require a lot of skill to make autonomous robot weapons."
Read the full article at its source:
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Sheffield-expert-claims-risk-from.3833613.jp

The EMOTIONAL Bond Between Robot and Human DEEPENS!

2008-03-04T08:09:00.003-05:00

From: ABCnews
Japan Looks to a Robot Future
Far Ahead of Other Countries, Japan Experiments With Robots As Part of Daily Life
"At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.

Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot — dubbed Kansei, or "sensibility" — responds to the word "war" by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears "love," and its pink lips smile.
"To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks," said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University. "Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventually feel them.
While robots are a long way from matching human emotional complexity, the country is perhaps the closest to a future — once the stuff of science fiction — where humans and intelligent robots routinely live side by side and interact socially.
Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robots plant rice and tend paddies.
There are robots serving as receptionists, vacuuming office corridors, spoon-feeding the elderly. They serve tea, greet company guests and chatter away at public technology displays. Now startups are marching out robotic home helpers...:
Read the full article at its source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/wireStory?id=4370051

Internal Robotics?

2008-02-27T06:20:00.003-05:00

From: WIRED
... Microbots' Fantastic Voyage Through Your Clogged Arteries
"Finally, Fantastic Voyage is becoming reality — well, almost. Rather than mini Raquel Welches scuba diving through your veins, picture teeny-tiny insects. Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology are building six-legged robots small enough to skitter through your blood vessels. The critters can crawl for up to 10 days, no batteries required. Their biocompatible skeletons — made of the same stretchy stuff that's in Silly Putty — are plated with heart cells from rats. When immersed in a glucose solution, the cells beat in synchrony. With each pulse, the bot's back legs contract, pushing the bug forward at a "speed" of 100 micrometers per second (50 meters a week). Lead scientist Sukho Park believes such devices could be injected into humans to treat cardiovascular disease as early as 2020. Once inside a clogged vessel, the bot would feed off the glucose in the blood as it creeps along the length of the artery, releasing a dissolving agent to clear blockages and plaque. Sure, but how will it look in a formfitting wet suit?"
Read the article at its source:
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-03/st_wtf#

Robot Invasion Begins: World on Brink of Immersion Into Robotically Enhanced Environment

2008-02-27T05:56:00.003-05:00

From: TimesUnion.com
Artificial or not, AI enhances human life
"Self-steering vacuum cleaners. Self-parking cars. Dolls responding to voice commands.
We may not be living in the world of "The Jetsons," but robots are definitely becoming a part of ordinary life. The company iRobot reports that more than 2.5 million of its home robotic products -- Roomba vacuums, Scooba floor washers, Verro swimming pool scrubbers, Looj gutter cleaners and ConnectR "Virtual Visiting Robots" -- have been sold.

This year's Toy Fair introduced an animatronic "Elmo Live" that can act out stories. And Playskool's Kota the Triceratops, a $300 life-size baby dinosaur for preschoolers, reacts to touch by moving its head, tail and horns, and gives "a friendly dino roar" when spoken to.
Then there's the first-generation Lexus LS 460 L automobile with "Advanced Parking Guidance System," which parallel-parks itself (as long as there's 6 feet of wiggle room). The LawnBott LB3500 from KA Home Robotics can be told when and where to mow from your cellphone or PDA.

In fact, the line between appliance and artificial intelligence is getting blurrier every day. According to roboticist Daniel H. Wilson, author of "How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas, and Zombies" (Bloomsbury; 176 pages; $13.95), to be classified as a robot, a machine only has have the ability to sense the environment, "think" about what to do and act in the physical world. Doing it for you

That sense-think-act closed-loop process "is a pretty broad definition," Wilson admitted in a recent phone interview. "But we are surrounded by all these machines that are making decisions without human intervention. Robots don't have to move to be robots. Instead of moving themselves, they can send commands to the real world."

By that criteria, even a smoke alarm is a type of AI -- artificial intelligence. So are your car's antilock brakes: Hit the pedal to tell the ABS system you want to slow down, and the vehicle's onboard computer takes over and does it for you. No more relying on humans to resist the urge to slam on the brakes instead of using the more effective light taps.

"In How to Build a Robot Army," Wilson takes robots that can be found today in homes or in laboratories -- "A lot of them are prototypes. I have a lot of friends that have cool projects." -- and suggests ways to turn them into allies in the fight against pop-culture villains such as zombies and great white sharks.

The tongue-in-check instructions include adding a can of gasoline to your Roomba to turn it into a roving land mine, or sending micro air drones, such as the remote-controlled FlyTech Dragonfly from Robosapien-maker Wowwee, with infrared navigational sensors added on to do overhead reconnaissance of werewolf-filled forests..."
Read Full Article @ Its Source:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=666132&TextPage=1
Also See (from Wired News Blog):
Book Review: How to Build a Robot Army
"A couple weeks ago my GeekTeen, John, age 15, asked if he could blog a review of roboticist Daniel Wilson's two books. We checked and found Wilson had just published a new volume -- which gave me a great excuse to interview him too! He says he's gotten a lot of positive response from parents and kids (including Wired.com's Chris Anderson, whose kids sent him drawings inspired by his previous book).
You can read my Times Union interview with Wilson for the next week.
And here's John's review:
You’ve all seen movies where aliens come to wreak havoc in cities or Godzilla terrorizes Tokyo,and the poor, weak humans have to fight them. But what if we had robots on our side? Almost nothing can stand up to those powerhouses (except other robots of course). But how to make an army of robots? You buy this book.
How to Build a Robot Army is written by Daniel H. Wilson, who has a degree in robotics and has written two books before this one. (How to Survive a Robot Uprising and Where’s my Jetpack?) In this book, he tells you how to build a make-shift army using Roombas, Furbys and other household robots. The first part of the book is a crash-course in robotics: how to modify them for battle, what types there are, how to put weapons on them, and more. It also explains how to upgrade humans for battle (such as suiting them with exo-skeletons or swallowing a pill infused with microbots). Next is a lesson in robot training, such as how to make a robot team and how to tame walker robots. The final section is a list of famous movie monsters (Godzilla, the Wolf Man, zombies etc.) and what robots you can send against them...."
Full article @: http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/02/book-review-how.html

Robots Take Over Warehouse Work!

2008-02-26T12:07:00.002-05:00

From: Boston.com
Carrying the load
In an industry motivated mostly by gee-whiz factor, Bay State firms take the lead in creating robots with real-world uses
"Don't call them robots.
I made the mistake five minutes into a conversation with Kiva Systems Inc. chief executive Mick Mountz, who paused for a second, smiled, and explained:
"We're not about the robot. This company was founded to solve a business problem, and a lot of robotics companies are about a cool technology that is looking for an application."
The idea of turning a warehouse over to stout orange robots the size of an ottoman might induce anxiety in the average logistics manager, and so Mountz prefers to call the rolling machines built by his Woburn-based company "mobile drive units" (though he sometimes relents and uses the term "bots").
The theory is that the bots can make order fulfillment faster and more efficient, letting a human stuff more boxes per hour. Kiva's bots can also rearrange warehouses on the fly, moving racks of popular items closer to the workers, while consigning slow-selling items to a distant corner. So far, customers like Staples Inc., Walgreen Co., and the online shoe store Zappos.com have been willing to give Kiva a try.
Kiva is part of a growing cluster of Massachusetts companies that are developing a new generation of robots that can do surprising things: clean out rain gutters, swim underwater to inspect the hulls of Navy vessels, and manage warehouses. The state has more than 150 companies and research labs working on robots, according to the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, which says the figure is conservative.
"Boston and Pittsburgh both have a good number of robotics companies, but Boston has the advantage, in terms of being a larger city, and a larger investment community, " says Dan Kara, president of Robotics Trends, a Natick company that organizes the annual RoboBusiness conference; it alternates between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Silicon Valley, Kara says, has a decent number of robotics companies, but doesn't register very high on the robotics Richter scale..."
Read the full article @ its source: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/02/24/carrying_the_load/

Babies Drive Robots - No Learner's Permit Required

2008-02-26T11:58:00.004-05:00

From: The Daily Times
Babies get a license to thrive
" They don''t have licenses, and they can't even sit in the front seat of a car. But some infants already have driving experience. For the past two years, researchers from the University of Delaware have been observing babies 4- to 15-months-old "drive" a special robot outfitted with a booster seat and joystick. They hope their findings will help determine how robots can enhance the progress of infants with developmental disabilities as well as those with long-term mobility limitations.

Most of the 20 babies studied thus far have demonstrated that they understand the link between their physical actions and the robot's motions; the results from two have been published in the journal Intel Serv Robotics. If this understanding continues, the next step is to see whether the robots can accelerate the interest of slow-developing children in moving on their own.

"If you take them out of the robot, they may still have that drive inside them to move," said James C. Galloway, associate professor of physical therapy at UD. "The robot may work as a stimulus, and then they may have the possibility after a couple of times using it to have the drive to learn to crawl."

More than 43,000 American babies were enrolled in special services in 2006, either because they had or were at risk of developing a disability, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In these infants, intellectual and physical development is hindered by their inability to explore their world, said Dr. Dara Richardson-Heron, national medical director of United Cerebral Palsy, an advocacy group. Once the babies obtain that ability to explore, their ability to think and learn skyrockets.

"There's a real cognitive explosion when a child without any developmental problems starts to explore the world by crawling and walking," she said. "To me, it seems very likely that a child with a developmental disability will have the same or similar response. What a difference if they were exposed to the world more actively."..
Read the full article at its source:
http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/LIFESTYLE/802250325/1024

Professor Klatu Uses Comic Books to Teach Robotics!!!

2008-02-26T11:39:00.003-05:00

From: The Enquirer

Comic books help students understand robotics theory
Prof creates materials using newer software
"University of Cincinnati professor Ernie Hall has discovered the joys of using comic books in the classroom - for learning - although the professor of robotics and computer science isn't opposed to having fun either.

Using a new software, Comic Book Creator, Hall has created comic books, finding them helpful in explaining technical points for college students in his robot control class.

"It just fits perfectly with our robotics activities," said Hall, director of the Center for Robotics at UC. "In there, I have a lot of theory. The theory of control is very sophisticated, but I have to show them enough about it to make it look easy as a piece of cake. Then, they'll go out and build their own robots."

Students in the class agreed that the comic books are a hit.
It definitely spiced it up a lot," said Ben Stayton, 23, a senior in mechanical engineering. "It made it a lot more interesting."

Matt Abirached, also a 23-year-old senior mechanical engineering student, added, "It was different than our normal lecture, which is just seeing PowerPoint slides."
Comic books won't replace serious technical papers, Hall said, but he does plan to use that format more often to enhance his lectures.

"It's better than PowerPoint," he said. "It lets me spiff up my PowerPoint lectures. I have all my lectures on the computer with PowerPoint but now I see I really need to spiff them up with this, and then they would be a lot more effective, especially on hard, technical problems. I can lighten up the scene a little bit."...

Read the full article @ its source:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080224/NEWS0102/802240361/1058/NEWS01

Do We Have to Tip Robots? An Issue We'll Face Soon!

2008-02-26T08:23:00.002-05:00

From: Christian Science Monitor
Robots set to overhaul service industry, jobs

In the next decade, robots will increasingly take over low-level jobs, experts say, displacing human employees.
Pittsburgh - At a mall in Osaka, Japan, lost shoppers can get directions from a robot that looks like something out of "The Jetsons." In hospitals across the US, disc-shaped robots deliver bed linens and meals to rooms. In some homes, robots are already doing a range of chores, such as vacuuming rooms and cleaning gutters. At least one company is working on a robot that works on a farm.

As a growing number of robots become capable of working alongside humans, the service industry may face a pattern all too familiar in the manufacturing sector: robots replacing humans in jobs.

"The service sector, which is a gigantic part of the employment landscape in the United States, is inevitably going to be a place where you can replace millions of people with robots that work 24/7 for less money," says futurist Marshall Brain..."
Read the full article @ its source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0225/p01s01-usgn.html#

Put this robot on and you're... super carpenter!

2008-02-19T06:38:00.003-05:00

From: PHYSORG.com
"Wearable Robotics Aid Construction Workers"
"Applied scientists and engineers at Nagayo University in Japan introduced a prototype wearable half-robotic device designed for carpentry workers. The study of carpentry workers utilizing the device in the task of fitting ceiling boards in place concludes marked reduction in muscle output force, thereby reducing arm fatigue. Further study is on going to reduce weight, size and low adjusting speed of the device. The next phase will test the overall effectiveness of the half-robot aid to workers..."

Read the full article at its source: http://www.physorg.com/news122543315.html

The Evolution of Machines - Here's What's Coming!

2008-02-17T10:34:00.002-05:00

From" TED Talks http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/165
Hod Lipson: Robots that are "self-aware"

Anthropormorphized Autonomous Snow Plow!

2008-02-11T17:08:00.000-05:00

From: Pink Tentacle
"Yuki-taro autonomous snowplow robot"

"The harsh winter in Niigata, Japan brings heavy snow, which can pose problems for residents — particularly the elderly — who are faced with the laborious task of clearing it from driveways and entrances. To the rescue comes Yuki-taro, an autonomous snowplow robot developed by a team of researchers from five Niigata-area organizations.
The friendly-looking Yuki-taro measures 160 x 95 x 75 cm (63 x 37 x 30 in.) and weighs 400 kg (880 lbs). Armed with GPS and a pair of video cameras embedded in its eyes, the self-guided robot seeks out snow and gobbles it up into its large mouth. Yuki-taro’s insides consist of a system that compresses the snow into hard blocks measuring 60 x 30 x 15 cm (24 x 12 x 6 in.), which Yuki-taro expels from its rear end. The blocks can then be stacked and stored until summer, when they can be used as an alternative source of refrigeration or cooling.
Yuki-taro is the result of nearly seven years of work by researchers from the Niigata Industrial Creation Organization (NICO), Research and Development, Inc. (RDI), Niigata Institute of Technology, Yamagata University and the Industrial Research Institute of Niigata Prefecture (IRI), who set out to design an environmentally-friendly robot that can operate by itself and support the elderly. In 2006, Yuki-taro received a Good Design Award in the small-to-medium sized enterprise category.
Researchers continue to work on reducing Yuki-taro’s size, weight and cost, and they hope to make it commercially available in five years at a price of less than 1 million yen ($8,300). It is unclear whether or not the researchers intend to further enhance the robot’s “cute” factor, but they might ought to consider attaching a pair of pointy ears. O-negai!"

Read article at its source: Yuki-taro autonomous snowplow robot

WIRED's "50 Best Robots Ever"

2008-02-11T16:54:00.000-05:00

From: Wired
"The 50 Best Robots Ever"
They're exploring the deep sea and distant planets. They're saving lives in the operating room and on the battlefield. They're transforming factory floors and filmmaking. They're - oh c'mon, they're just plain cool! From Qrio to the Terminator, here are our absolute favorites (at least for now).

50. ROBONAUT Not all NASA robots drive around poking at rocks. This android will one day work alongside people on space stations. Robonaut is the same size and shape as a person in a space suit, so it can handle tasks typically performed by humans - its hands are even better articulated than an astronaut's gloved digits. The fact that it looks like Boba Fett? Lucky coincidence.
49. LEONARDO Awww, isn't it cuddly? Or maybe just creepy. MIT's Cynthia Breazeal is famous for building robots that humans have an emotional reaction to. Her newest creation, Leonardo, was bolted together in 2002 with the help of the movie monster gurus at Stan Winston Studio (their animatronics include the Terminator, the aliens in Aliens, and the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park). Leonardo can grab objects, make facial expressions and complex gestures, and even learn simple tasks (like turning lights on and off) through trial and error.
48. KITT The smooth-talking, self-driving muscle car from the early '80s TV drama Knight Rider was so cool, it even upstaged David Hasselhoff. The success of this Trans-Am helped to usher in a new genre of show with supervehicles as heroes, from Airwolf to Stealth.
47. HAL 9000Some tasks are too important to be left to humans. Just ask Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The 1968 film gave the world the ultimate all seeing, all knowing - and apparently all ego - AI villain. It set the standard for machines that can think (and kill) like us but are too powerful to control.
46. ROOMBA DISCOVERY This wasn't the first robosucker, just the first that didn't blow. In 2005, iRobot's second-generation robotic vacuum showed that domestic bots can actually work. To clean the floors, simply turn the thing on - just try not to stand around watching slack-jawed.
45. NINTENDO R.O.B.In the mid-'80s, the PC was killing the market for videogame consoles. The game industry's only hope? A robot. Nintendo packaged the Robotic Operating Buddy with the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System. The R.O.B. didn't do much, but the gimmick helped Nintendo sneak systems onto shelves. Lo, the console market was saved.
44. SLUGBOT Meet a real-life hunter bot. Built in 2001 at the University of West England, SlugBot uses a vision sensor and an extending arm to find slugs, grab them, and drop them into an onboard trap. The idea is that one day it will deposit the slugs in its dock and use the gas from the decomposing bodies to charge its fuel cells.
43. ATTACK BOTS FROM RUNAWAY Tom Selleck got top billing, but the real stars of Michael Crichton's overlooked 1984 thriller were the spider attack drones. OK, their weapons were low tech (they sprayed acid at people), but the bug bots presaged Genghis (see #14) and similar critters in The Matrix and Steven Spielberg's Minority Report.
42. LILLIPUT TOY ROBOT Before there were real robots, there were toy robots. Among the first was Lilliput, a windup walker from the 1930s. It couldn't do much - the legs would walk, causing the arms to swing. But by the late '40s, the tin tykes had spread from Japan to the US, earning a spot in toy history alongside teddy bears and fire trucks.
41. MOBOTS What would you get if Robby the Robot got busy with a Mars rover? Probably something like the Mobots. In 1960 Hughes Aircraft unleashed these industrial machines for use in hazardous material sites - teleoperators controlled the snaking appendages. Alas, like the Spruce Goose, they weren't financially viable.
40. ELEKTRO AND SPARKO Westinghouse engineer Joseph Barnett made a splash at the 1939 World's Fair with a 7-foot, cable-controlled metal man that could walk, speak 77 words, and even smoke cigarettes (so debonair). The next year Barnett gave the hulking android a best friend: a robotic dog that seemed to bark and sit in response to Elektro's commands.
39. S-BOTS An ongoing project of the EU's Future and Emerging Technologies program, these minibuggies show strength in numbers. Each s-Bot is fully independent, but get a bunch in a room together and they'll form a chain to carry heavy payloads or bridge obstacles. Kinda like ants on roller skates … in a conga line.
38. SONY AIBOThink this is a hunk of plastic that won't fetch a tennis ball? Think again. It's actually an advanced piece of robotics that won't fetch a tennis ball. Introduced in 1999, AIBO is one of the most sophisticated toys on the market. It can find its docking station, recognize its owner's face, and respond to voice commands.
37. RB5X It hit store shelves in 1985, and this first-ever mass-produced home robot kit is still sold today. RB5X can be programmed to speak, navigate a room, and perform such simple tasks as retrieving small objects. Of course, its real claim to fame was as a sweet prize on the '80s videogame quiz show Starcade.
36. PACKBOTS From the creators of the Roomba comes a kick-ass droid for the US military. Carried on a soldier's back, it can be tossed into a building or under a car, where it will assess the situation (or maybe just be blown up). First deployed in Afghanistan in 2002, it's now on active cannon-fodder duty in Iraq.
35. THE IRON GIANT This 100-foot-tall combat machine from the 1999 movie wields an energy cannon and snacks on cars. But he really gets in gear playing hide-and-seek with a schoolboy. The giant eventually achieves robot enlightenment, realizing that he controls his own destiny (even if that means head-butting a suborbital nuclear weapon). It's a classic example of how robots - like all technologies - are neither good nor evil, just tools of circumstance.
34. OPTIMUS PRIME Robots are cool. Robots that turn into giant trucks - way cool. Robots that turn into giant trucks and command a fleet of autobots - now that could change pop culture history. Such was the impact of the Transformer when the toy line was introduced in 1984, spawning decades of TV shows, movies, and comic books.
33. THE TURK Step right up and marvel at the mechanical device that can beat you in chess. Not impressed? You would be if it were 1769. The contraption was a hoax (inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen stashed a human chess master inside), but it sparked early debates over what it means for a machine to think.
32. ABE Mars may belong to the rovers, but the oceans belong to the Autonomous Benthic Explorer. Completed in 1995 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the first fully independent underwater scout can dive down to 15,000 feet, map thermo layers and collect water samples, then swim home on its own.
31. GM UNIMATE After bonding over their mutual love of sci-fi, engineers George Devol and Joseph Engelberger invented the industrial robot. They must have been reading very utilitarian fiction - their 1961 creation was a 4,000-pound arm that stacked sheets of hot metal. But it transformed the assembly line; a variant is still in use today.
30. THE TIN WOODMAN While technically a cyborg, the heartless lumberjack of Oz did wrestle with a common existential dilemma faced by robots: the desire to feel. (Well, that and the desire to combat rust.) Not bad for 1939. And hey, how many other robots sing and dance with Judy Garland?
29. VAUCANSON'S DUCK Back in 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson wanted to create artificial life. He settled for a mechanical duck that pooped. The machine used a weight system to quack, flap its wings, drink water, and eat grain, which it would digest mechanically and expel through an opening in its backside.
28. THE TERMINATOR Apparently robots of the future like to hit the gym. Out of a long line of assassin bots, the Terminator is the perfect blend of indestructibility and determination. With him, James Cameron personified what we really fear about robots: They'd do better without us.
27. MQ-1 PREDATOR Forget fantasy robots that kill people - here's a real robot that kills people. The US military's famed unmanned aerial vehicle became a household name in 2002 after taking flight in Afghanistan. Now armed with hellfire missiles, it no longer just monitors enemies - it blows them up, too.
26. FALSE MARIA The classic sexbot from Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis was one of the first mechanized humans on film. She danced topless, incited riots, and sparked duels, but what really got her off was overthrowing the ruling class. No wonder she inspired every vision of an android for the next 80 years.
25. PARTNER BALLROOM DANCING ROBOTS Some robots build cars, some explore space, some do the cha-cha-cha. In 2005, Tohoku University's Kazuhiro Kosuge debuted a series of ballroom dancing androids, complete with fancy dresses. They can predict the movements of a partner, enabling them to follow another dancer's lead. And they're klutz-proof: There are no toes to step on.
24. ELSIE AND ELMER Neuroscientist W. Grey Walter's mechanical tortoises from the 1940s were the first fully autonomous electric robots. Programmed to seek out light and to turn if they ran into an object, they could find their illuminated charging stations, even if something was in the way.
23. GORT In the 1951 flick The Day the Earth Stood Still, spaceman Klaatu and his robot Gort come to Earth to promote peace. When that doesn't work out, Gort teaches us what happens to those who eschew harmony - they die. Oh the irony that a machine must remind us of our humanity.
22. ROSSUMS' UNIVERSAL ROBOTS Czech author Karel Capek coined the term robot in his 1920 play about automaton factory workers. One problem: The characters that gave a title to all robotics weren't actually, you know, robots. They were biological creatures - more Jango Fett clones than C-3PO.
21. PERSONAL SATELLITE ASSISTANT Legs, wheels, and treads - those are for bots that can't get off the ground. NASA's Personal Satellite Assistant possesses none of these things; instead it uses small fans to propel itself through zero gravity. Perhaps as soon as 2007, these assistants will hover over an astronaut's shoulder, serving as an all-in-one PDA, videophone, and air monitor.
20. MINDSTORMS Since 1998, Mindstorms have been turning 8-year-olds into fledgling roboticists. The Lego kits come with programmable blocks that animate all manner of dinosaurs, vending machines, unmanned planes - whatever kids, or more likely their parents, can dream up.
19. R2-D2R2-D2 and C-3PO - the Abbott and Costello of space - may be the most popular robots in history, but it's the littler one that really steals the show. Sure, C-3PO could walk and speak 6 million languages, but R2-D2 proved that robots can be emotive without being humanoid and don't need to speak English to communicate.
18. HONDA'S P2Asimo? A pipsqueak. Before Honda's much-hyped biped was touring the world, there was P2, a 6-foot, 462-pound prototype. Unveiled in 1996, P2 possessed most of Asimo's walking skills - including the ability to climb stairs - making it, as Honda puts it "the first self-regulating, two-legged humanoid walking robot."
17. ALBERT HUBO Here's an idea: Stick an elastomer foam Einstein head on a robot spaceman. This 2005 collaboration between roboticist David Hanson and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is more likely to give you nightmares than a unified field theory. But it's the best combo to date of bipedal movement and realistic facial expression.
16. ROBART III Not only does Robart III have a gun, it has a team of spider "slave" bots. Under development by the Navy since 1992, this security robot uses microwave motion detectors to search, say, a hostile building for enemies, sending out its insectoid companions to look in dark corners. Alas, its barrels hold only rubber bullets and darts.
15. WABOT AND WABOT 2In the '70s, some roboticists were building machines to make Chevettes, but researchers at Tokyo's Waseda University were building bots in man's image. In 1973, they introduced Wabot, the first full-scale programmable android. It had eyes, flailing limbs, and the ability to speak Japanese. The next rev, Wabot 2, played piano.
14. GENGHIS Creeped out by bug bots? How about bug bots that can learn? In 1988, Rodney Brooks' lab at MIT created this six-legged walker, which taught itself how to scramble over boards and other obstacles. The secret: Allow each leg to react to the environment independently and you won't need to program every complex step.
13. EDINBURGH MODULAR ARM SYSTEM Part man, part machine, all Scottish: Campbell Aird received the first complete bionic arm in 1998. Pressure sensors in the shoulder attachment detect minute fluctuations in Aird's muscles, activating motors that control the arm's movement. Eat your heart out, Lee Majors.
12. T-52 ENRYU What's better than an 11-foot-tall robot? An 11-foot-tall robot that can rip cars in half and lift 1,100-pound slabs of concrete. Japanese manufacturer Tmsuk unleashed Enryu in 2004 to help in rescue operations (think earthquakes). The best part: It's piloted from a cockpit in its belly, manga style.
11. SPEEDY Before Sonny (shown) made Asmiov's three laws of robotics known to the masses, there was Speedy, the robot in the 1942 short story Runaround that inaugurated the directives. Speedy knows not to harm humans, to obey their commands, and to protect itself, just not which rules matter most. Turns out a bot's needs come last.
10. THE STANFORD CART Grand Challenge finishers, UAVs, and even KITT from Knight Rider all owe a debt of gratitude to James Adams and Hans Moravec's Stanford Cart. In 1979, the wagon traversed a chair-filled room on its own, a landmark achievement for self-navigating vehicles. Travel time: roughly five hours.
09. DANTE II After eight volcano researchers were killed in two 1993 eruptions, robots were brought in to take the heat. The next year, Carnegie Mellon's Dante II was lowered into Alaska's steaming Mount Spurr to collect data. It fell in, but not before uploading its readings, making it the first "successful" terrestrial explorer robot.
08. DA VINCI SURGICAL SYSTEM In the future, you'll beg to be operated on by a machine. Credit Intuitive Surgical's 2000 robot, a fusion of arms, cameras, and instruments that allows doctors to slice into patients remotely. Procedures done with the da Vinci are more precise than when humans wield the scalpel - research shows there's less blood loss and quicker recovery.
07. THE MECHANICAL KNIGHT Way back in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci designed what was probably the first robot - an automated suit of armor with a windup crank. It could sit up, wave its hands, and maybe even talk. Five hundred years later, engineer Mark Rosheim used the master's schematics to build a working miniaturized version.
06. QRIO Bipedal robots that can walk up stairs seem flatfooted compared with the running, jumping, and traditional-Japanese-fan-dancing Qrio. Officially, Sony uses its state-of-the-art androids, debuted in 2003, as corporate ambassadors. But the company may one day sell them for entertainment. Works for Beck: The singer recently used all six Qrios in his video for "Hell Yes."
05. SHAKEY Developed by Stanford Research Institute International, Shakey had jerky, often nonsensical movements. But that didn't stop the 1972 robot from entering the history books as the first machine to autonomously locate objects, steer around them - and then explain its logic for doing so.
04. ROBBY THE ROBOT Few robots can trace their origins to Shakespeare. Robby, from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, was inspired by Ariel in The Tempest. But that didn't keep Robby from leaving a legacy all his own. For decades, the very idea of a robot was synonymous with Robby's bulbous figure.
03. SPIRIT AND OPPORTUNITY Some robots sit in labs for researchers to tinker with. These two bots are on frickin' Mars. Expected to last only three months when they touched down on the Red Planet in January 2004, the rovers are still going strong two years later - each sends back 100 megabits of data a day.
02. ASTROBOY While American kids were daydreaming of Superman, Japanese tykes were worshipping at the altar of Tetsuwan Atom, aka Astroboy. First drawn in 1951, Astroboy has rocket boots, lasers that shoot from his fingertips, and, uh, an ass cannon. The lovable crime-fighting robot was an inspiration to a generation of kids -some of whom went on to become robotics researchers. He's a big reason why Japan is at the forefront of android development today. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.
And the #1 Robot of All Time Is...
01. STANLEY The Stanford Racing Team's autonomous vehicle is a modified Volkswagen Touareg that can scan any terrain and pick out a drivable course to a preset destination. Cup holders optional.

The Woz Disses Robots... :( (kind of)

2008-02-11T16:37:00.000-05:00

From: chron.com
"Limits to creativity"
"Steve Wozniak has given up on artificial intelligence.
"What is intelligence?" Apple's co-founder asked an audience of about 550 Thursday at the Houston area's first Up Experience conference in Stafford.
His answer? A robot that could get him a cup of coffee.
"You can come into my house and make a cup of coffee and I can go into your house and make a cup of coffee," he said. "Imagine what it would take for a robot to do that."
It would have to negotiate the home, identify the coffee machine and know how it works, he noted.
But that is not something a machine is capable of learning — at least not in his lifetime, added Wozniak, who rolled onto the stage on his ever-present Segway before delivering a rapid-fire speech on robotics, his vision of robots in classrooms and the long haul ahead for artificial intelligence.
Billed as a day of "unique perspectives from unique people," the conference also treated attendees to talks from other notables, such as inventor Ray Kurzweil, filmmaker Dan DeVivo and author Malcolm Gladwell. World traveler Lisa Ling had to cancel at the last minute because of an assignment in Africa, conference organizers said.
For a $1,000 registration fee, about 550 attendees heard talks on subjects ranging from health care and the economy to fine dining and child advocacy delivered by experts in each field.
Earlier in the day, Kurzweil predicted it wouldn't be long before computer intelligence surpassed human intelligence..."
Read the complete article at its source:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5524028.html

Students & Dancing Robots

2008-02-11T16:19:00.000-05:00

From: The Chronicle of Higher Education - The Wired Campus

Video Report: Students Use Dancing Robots to Show Lighter Side of Computer Science
A robotics team at Spelman College, called the Spelbots, has programmed robot dogs to dance, in hopes of attracting new students to study computer science. The students on the team are clearly enjoying their technology education, as evidenced in our video report about the team.

The team’s coach, Andrew B. Williams, an associate professor of computer science at Spelman College, talked about the importance of attracting more women and minority students to computer science in an interview in this week’s Chronicle. —Jeffrey R. Young

Read this article at its sourece: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2725

Here's some more dancing robots:

The Robot as Art Object... Er, The Robot as Performer... Er, The Robot as Artist

2008-02-05T07:52:00.000-05:00

From: ZD Net
"This robot snake wants to dance with you"
"According to a short article in The Engineer Online, a two-meter high robotic snake will be shown in April 2008 at the London Science Museum. This vertical snake has been designed as an interactive sculpture. It uses sensors to react to what are doing its viewers and ‘dances’ with them. The manufacturer says the robot has 28 ‘muscles’ and 27 degrees of freedom. It also claims two technology breakthroughs: ‘the muscle actuation mechanism includes built-in air valves which enable far greater control and scope for movement; and its linear sensors are unique in the world of robotics as they are bus addressable and less susceptible to magnetic interference.’ But read more…

Here is the opening paragraph of The Engineer Online article. “A unique robotic snake developed by Plymouth-based Merlin Robotics working alongside Nottingham Trent University is to go on display at the London Science Museum’s DANA Centre. in April 2008. The vertical snake, designed to function as an interactive artwork, includes two technologies which Merlin claims are a world first.”
Here are more details picked from a Merlin Robotics news release, Two world firsts for British ‘Robosnake’ (January 18, 2008). “A ‘world first,’ the muscle actuation mechanism is breakthrough technology — the ‘muscles’ include built-in air valves which enable far greater control and scope for movement. Another world first is the snake’s absolute optical position sensors. These linear sensors are unique in the world of robotics as they are bus addressable and less susceptible to magnetic interference. These two new technologies, combined with the software, enabled the robotics experts and Nottingham Trent University to create this ‘world first’ in compliant robotics. The mechanisms will be able to be implemented into commercial applications..."

Read the full aricle 2 its sources: http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=822

Check out this video from the developer, Merlin:

A look back to see where we are @ now!

2008-02-05T07:39:00.000-05:00

Cover of Time Magazine - December 8, 1980 - 28 years ago+

Cover Story: "The Robot Revolution"
"For good or ill, it is already transforming the way the world works
The new robots do not really look like Frankenstein's monster, or like Artoo Deetoo in Star Wars, but rather like a row of giant birds.

They poke their 9-ft.-long, rubber-sheathed necks toward the row of automobile frames. From their beaks, a blinding shower of sparks streams forth. The escape of compressed air creates a loud hissing sound. This is Chrysler's sprawling 145-acre Jefferson plant in East Detroit, where the trouble-ridden firm is building the new K-cars—the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries—that it hopes will save its future. Once 200 welders with their masks and welding guns used to work on such an assembly line. Here there are no welders in sight; there are only 50 robots craning forward, spitting sparks. They work two shifts, and the assembly line's output has increased by almost 20% since the robots arrived earlier this year.

In a plant outside Turin, the Italian firm of Digital Electronic Automation is trying out its first new Pragma A-3000. The $110,000 robot, which has just been licensed by General Electric, is assembling a compressor valve unit from twelve separate parts. Its two arms can do totally different jobs at once. When it picks up a slightly defective gasket in its gray steel claw, it immediately senses something wrong, flicks the gasket to one side and picks up another. The Pragma produces 320 units an hour, without mistakes, and it can labor tirelessly for 24 hours a day. That makes it roughly the equivalent of ten human workers. Furthermore, it can easily be reprogrammed to assemble TV sets or electric motors or, theoretically, just about anything.
Near Golden, Colo., at the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats plant, a technician pushes a red button marked REQUEST TRANSFER. Behind a 10-in.-thick concrete wall, a pair of claws reaches out to grasp a stainless steel container filled with pink powder, then lifts it into a furnace where it is baked at 950° F until it turns into a nondescript gray button three inches in diameter. Such a button could be worth $100,000, for the job of this robot, which goes into regular operation in a few months, is transporting reprocessed plutonium, one of the most toxic substances known to man. Until now, this dangerous task has been done by men in elaborate space suits. The robot, which knows neither weariness nor boredom, also knows nothing of danger..."
Read the complete article @ its source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922173,00.html

LEGO Sumo Robots

2008-02-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

From: WIRED Blog Network geekdad
"Report from a hardcore LEGO Sumo contest"
"GeekDad hero Steve Hassenplug, who is perhaps the best LEGO robotics builder in the world, writes in with a guest post, reporting on the Mindstorms contest he hosted at his house near Chicago last week. Over to Steve:
"I have lots of cool stuff that goes on in my basement. Just last weekend, I had an International LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Sumo Competition, with over 100 LEGO robots entered by builders from countries around the world. The judges narrowed the field to about 30 robots, which actually battled on the sumo ring over a couple days, to eventually determine a single winner.
OK, so that doesn't happen every week. But you may wonder how it happens at all. Well, it started a couple years ago when LEGO tapped me and asked if I wanted to be involved in the development of their latest robotic kit, the LEGO Mindstorms NXT. I jumped at the chance, and have been "working" with them ever sense.
Thanks to the web, I've been lucky enough to find four friends in my neighborhood (state) that are as interested (obsessed) with this hobby as I am. To explain the extent of our "interest", when people ask how many Mindstorms NXT kits I have, I usually say "More than most schools." I think between the five of us, we have more than 40 kits. Somewhere along the way, I got e-mail from someone talking about me and my "Robotics Posse". So, we have a group, and our group has a name.
One day, I was looking at the LEGO web site where people can submit their robots, and I realized we could have a contest where people submit their robots on line, and we actually build them at my house and have a "live" competition. Well the rest of the posse, and LEGO all jumped at the idea.
So it began. The challenge was to design & build a LEGO sumo robot who's goal is to push another robot out of a 4 foot circle. Entries would be judged based on the quality of the submission, the best entries would be built and then battle for the championship. The challenge was posted on NXTLog and entries started coming in. A week before the deadline, there were 50 entries. Days before the deadline, the submission rate shot up, and when it was all done, there were over 110 entries.
I enter a lot of competitions, but this contest was a bit different from any I'd seen. In order to enter, you pretty much had show everyone exactly what you've done. There were no secrets. No hidden hardware tricks, or secret software stuff. The better the documentation, the higher the chance of being selected to reach the second round and actually compete.
The hardest part (and least fun for me) was judging the submissions, and trying to select just a few. We had to narrow the field to about 1/4 it's original size, and that eliminated many very good designs. Once we picked out the best submissions, we also picked a couple random entries. These were robots that we knew wouldn't do too well, but we wanted to give a couple lucky builders a chance to participate.
Then, we actually started building. First, we built the "Last Chance" robots, and battled them. Out of that group, one winner advanced to the "Main event" where robots were built and randomly divided into groups (pools). Each robot battled all others in their pool. The top robots advanced to the elimination round, and the losing robots were destroyed. The Robotics Posse built a total of 29 robots over a couple days.
The double-elimination round started with several good robots, and a couple lucky ones (ten robots, in all). The lucky robots were quickly eliminated, and the best rose to the top. In the end, there was one very deserving winner (shown).
My two boys (age 5 & 7) had a great time. They got to run some of the robots, but I'm not sure they really understand the scope of what they were involved in. At one point, they ran a robot designed by a 9 yr old from Italy against a robot designed by an 11 yr old from Singapore. There were robots from Australia, India, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia (not to mention the US and Canada). It was quite the world-class event.
But, for my boys it was just another day in our basement. I love being a geek dad."
Read this article @ its source: http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/01/report-from-a-h.html

A High Tech Teaching Assistant

2008-02-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

"Robots Enter the Classroom"
"Some 60 Pittsburgh-area classrooms have a high-tech teaching assistant for the new school year: a robot.
This isn't your father's Roomba. For one thing, it doesn't do floors. For another, it's built of LEGOs. For a third, students build and program the robot themselves working from curricula created by engineers at the Robotics Academy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). CMU developed the curricula to work with LEGO Education's NXT, the latest model of the MINDSTORM robot. Each robot costs about $250.
As they go step-by-step through the process, students see the real-world applications of math and science, from how geometry relates to the robot's assessing the size of the classroom, to how physical laws govern the way the robot manipulates an object. Tech smarts play a role, too, as students program the robot's actions.
The curricula—one appropriate for middle-school students, the other for high-school students—were developed with the help of Pittsburgh-area teachers, who spent time in the Robotics Academy. (The robot shop is an educational outreach of CMU's Robotics Institute; it also sponsors robotics clubs, camps, and competitions for students, and robotics training for teachers.) Teachers worked with the robots and the lesson plans, and offered their feedback.
Robin Shoop, the academy's director, was himself a public-school teacher for nearly 30 years. Shoop says the in-class use of robots encourages students to get excited about math and science—subjects in which U.S. students' test scores sorely lag behind their counterparts in other industrialized nations.
There are other schools in the U.S. and Canada where robots are used for teaching, but if there was ever a natural home for robots in the classroom, it's "Robo-burgh." So dubbed by the Wall Street Journal in 1999 for its concentration of robotics businesses, the Pittsburgh area is home to some 80 companies in the industry. And CMU is the only university in the world that grants a Ph.D. in robotics.
No word yet on whether the robots can be programmed to reshelve books."

Read this article @ its source: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6365002.html

Paro is more than a therapeutic robot; Paro IS a Baby Seal!

2008-01-30T14:01:00.000-05:00

From CNN.com
"Meet Paro, the therapeutic robot seal"
"Paro is a harp seal stuffed animal robot, developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Engineer Takanori Shibata said Paro prototypes are being tested in Japan and Sweden at nursing homes, and with autistic and handicapped children.
"We know that pet therapy helps physically, psychologically and socially, and Paro does the same thing for people who are unable to care for a live pet," said Shibata.
Surface tactile sensors beneath its fur and whiskers trigger Paro to move and respond to petting: eyes open and close, flippers move. Just holding and stroking the critter has a calming effect, as Comdex (Computer Dealer Expo) visitors who checked it out soon discovered.
"We found nursing home residents also opened up and talked with each other about pets they had owned," said Shibata. And, he said, their stress levels went down.
Paro may soon be tested in children's hospitals in the United States. It's expected to cost between $2,500 and $3,000.
Read full article @ its source:http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/11/20/comdex.bestof/

"Elders finding love in a household machine
Seemingly sentient robots can fill void, researchers say"
"Until recently, Dorothy Light of West Lafayette, Ind., described herself as a 74-year-old lonely widow. She had said goodbye to her home and even her cat when she moved into a senior apartment building that doesn't allow pets.
But she's not lonely anymore, Light said, thanks to a new live-in companion that makes her feel loved. Never mind that her companion isn't capable of love, since it's just a robot that looks like a dog. What matters in her opinion is that loving feeling she gets when Big Boy sits in her lap or nuzzles beneath her arm.
''I had lost my identity" with no husband, pets, or children at home to nurture, she said.
The AIBO from Sony ''gives me a sense of identity," Light said. ''The dog loves me all the time. . . . It gives me an entrée into a world I had thought I'd lost forever."
Light got Big Boy from Purdue University, one of several institutions studying how elders interact with robotic pets. With nursing homes experiencing labor shortages and with the over-65 population projected to double by 2050, scientists are asking whether machines designed to seem sentient could provide a low-maintenance means of improving the emotional lives of seniors.
Some researchers are hopeful. A study completed last year at Purdue found that ''life satisfaction" scores improved in six out of 10 categories among 13 elders who had kept an AIBO in their apartments six weeks.
At Teikyo University of Science and Technology in Japan, researchers in ''robot-assisted therapy" have found that robotic pets in nursing homes stir positive memories of pets that residents once owned. Researchers from MIT found that nursing home residents would rather play with robots than dolls, because robots seem valued as grown-up activity.
But the semblance of sentience in these therapeutic robots has raised ethical questions. Is it right for anyone who feels desperately lonely or depressed to gain relief in an illusion? Would it be fair to use robots, which appear to have feelings, among elders with dementia who might think they're dealing with a real animal?.."
Read full aticle @ its source:
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/04/03/elders_finding_love_in_a_household_machine?mode=PF

The ART of Robotics: An Important "Next Step" Agenda Item

2008-01-30T11:51:00.000-05:00

From: Science Alive - New Zealand Science Center - 2007 Christchurch Robocup Junior Competition Photos

Recently, a listener to The Teachers Podcast ( http://www.teacherspodcast.org/ ), Ms. Linda Baran, a teacher at Selwyn House School – Christchurch, New Zealand, emailed us about her and her students' experiences with the wonderful Robo Cup Jr. program. Wonderful especially because it offers an opportunity for youngsters to become involved with robotics-based learning acitivities that are altenative or additional to the FIRST LEGO League competition. While 'FLL' is wonderful in its own right, it addresses a different set of needs than the very creativity and non-competitive oriented RoboCup Jr. This approach represents an important next step agenda item for robotics enthusiast educators as we craft a complete and balanced program for youngsters. Folow this link to photo and information about the program as it runs currently in New Zealand, which is further along this road than the American program and gives a broader picture at this point of its potential. http://www.sciencealive.co.nz/robotics/robocup.htm

Also, keep your eyes on a new program in this rich educational context currently forming in New York City "RoboFest NY" More to come on this as information is released.

The Transformative Power of Robotics (item of interest to edcuators)

2008-01-30T11:19:00.000-05:00

From: N Y Times 'Education' Section
"In the South Bronx, Robotics and Rebirth"
"At the end of a distinctly pugilistic day of sixth grade, Abdoulie Lemon was escorted by a dean to the industrial-arts classroom that doubled as the detention pen. No sooner had he restlessly settled into his chair than he caught sight of a dozen students gathered in rapt attention around a table at the other end of the room.
Not being the obedient sort at this point in his scholastic career, Abdoulie left behind the dean and the chair to check out the hubbub, he recalled recently. He saw on the tabletop a sort of motorized cart made mostly of Lego pieces.
“I want to play,” he said, shifting from tough guy to eager child with no intermediate step.
“It’s not a toy,” one of the students at the table answered. “It’s a robot.”
The dean begrudgingly gave Abdoulie a five-minute parole to watch the robot scoot to and fro across the tabletop. And in those five minutes, Abdoulie’s life changed.
What he was seeing, he soon learned, was a practice session for the robotics team at Herman Ridder Junior High School in the Bronx. There was practice every afternoon, and more practice or a competition on most Saturdays.
By now, two years later, Abdoulie is a veteran of the team. Last year, he traveled with the Ridder Kids, as their matching T-shirts proclaim them, to a national Lego robotics championship in Atlanta. At the end of this April, the squad plans to go to Japan to participate in an exhibition.
In the process, Abdoulie has solved the mystery of himself: How could a boy smart enough to disassemble and reassemble the family television be messing up so badly in school? The answer: Nobody at school had noticed that talent until the Ridder Kids encouraged Abdoulie to fit together every intricate part of a robot. For the first time, he felt success and approval.
“I used to be hard-headed,” Abdoulie explained at Ridder one recent afternoon. “Now I’m not that way anymore.”...
Read the full article at its source @: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/education/30education.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=62b47733bc8e2ad8&ex=1359349200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

War Robots in Deployment... NOW!

2008-01-26T10:37:00.000-05:00

From: Wired.com
"First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq"
"Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time -- the first time in any warzone -- the machines are carrying guns.
After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. The 'bots "haven't fired their weapons yet," Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM. "But that'll be happening soon."
The SWORDS -- modified versions of bomb-disposal robots used throughout Iraq -- were first declared ready for duty back in 2004. But concerns about safety kept the robots from being sent over the the battlefield. The machines had a tendency to spin out of control from time to time. That was an annoyance during ordnance-handling missions; no one wanted to contemplate the consequences during a firefight.
So the radio-controlled robots were retooled, for greater safety. In the past, weak signals would keep the robots from getting orders for as much as eight seconds -- a significant lag during combat. Now, the SWORDS won't act on a command, unless it's received right away. A three-part arming process -- with both physical and electronic safeties -- is required before firing. Most importantly, the machines now come with kill switches, in case there's any odd behavior. "So now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," Zecca says.
As initially reported in National Defense magazine, only three of the robots are currently in Iraq. Zecca says he's ready to send more, "but we don't have the money. It's not a priority for the Army, yet." He believes that'll change, once the robots begin getting into firefights...."

Read the entire article @ its source:http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/httpwwwnational.html

Pet Dinosaur Robot: Headed for Extinction?

2008-01-24T17:29:00.000-05:00

From: Circuits Newsletter
"Pleo, the (Yawn) Dino-Robot. Next!"
By DAVID POGUE
"One thing’s for sure: this is the first time I’ve ever reviewed a dinosaur.
And yet, as I sat down to test the new Pleo dino-robot with my three kids, I felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Because even though this is the first dinosaur robot I’ve reviewed, it’s not the first toy pet robot. That distinction belongs to the Sony Aibo dog, a $1,500 marvel from 2001 that has gone on to the great pet-robot cemetery in the sky..."

Read the full article at its source:
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/01/24/technology/circuitsemail/index.html?8cir&emc=cir#continue

Golfer, Caddy, and Golf Cart all in one?

2008-01-21T16:12:00.000-05:00

From: Express India
"In the making, a golfing robot"
"New Delhi - Amid a plethora of glittering motorcars at the just-concluded Auto Expo, there was this unusual sight, at a robotics show in the Andhra Pavilion—a lonely robot arm, patiently wielding a golf wedge, trying to hook a golf ball into a hole a little over a couple of metres away.
So that’s the end of golfing pros? Not really. The arm, developed by Precision Automation & Robotics India Ltd (PARI) is just an experiment, as Milind Adkar, their regional sales chief (north) pointed out to Sportline.

'In perfect conditions back in our lab we were hitting around 90 per cent successful shots, but in these conditions at the fair we make around 70 per cent.' It is more of an academic study by the Narhe, Maharashtra company (with operations in eight facilities worldwide, including the US) that could one day yield practical results.

Quite in keeping with the way Indian minds work, problems of handling multiple wind vectors, and resistances, it is probably an attempt at finding the right solution to those missed shots of Tiger Woods.

Maybe Woods would do better with a robotics firm instead of a software application conglomerate.

At least, somebody might want to look into Arjun Atwal’s putting sequences a little closely. "

Read this article at its source: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/In-the-making-a-golfing-robot/263252/

And on his farm he had a robot E-I-E-I-O

2008-01-21T15:56:00.000-05:00

From: American Agriculturalist
"Robotic Milking Takes Off in Northeast"

"Rising labor costs combined with the shortage of skilled dairy employees has many milk producers weighing expansion versus selling their herds. But today, technology and a growing service network is delivering a third option – robotic milking. Let the cows milk themselves up to three times a day often boosts milk output and cow longevity plus reduces milking labor. And, the technology also may help improve milk quality. That's why sales of robotic milking units are exploding in the Northeast this year. Officials for the DeLaval and Lely milking equipment manufacturing companies project that 50 to 60 robotic milking units will be installed on New York and Pennsylvania dairy farms this year..."

Read the entire article at its source: http://americanagriculturist.com/index.aspx?ascxid=fpStory&fpsid=31793&fpstid=2

Outstanding Photos of a High School Robotics Team!

2008-01-20T10:33:00.000-05:00

From: News from New York City / New Jersey FIRST January 7, 2008 (digital newsletter)

"A collection of wonderful images by Team 555 FIRST parent Dan Epstein"

http://picasaweb.google.com/randyschaeffer/2007NJFRC?authkey=uq3TN8Zd9aM

Meet Mr. Personality and friends...

2008-01-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

From: engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/05/wowwee-introduces-mr-personality-rovio-and-flytech-bladestar/

"WowWee introduces Mr. Personality, Rovio, and Flytech Bladestar"
"WowWee's CES robot lineup is here, so let's get to it. First up, you've got the Flytech Bladestar, a slightly crazier take on the indoor RC flying gig actually intended for duels with friends. The Bladestart has two spinning wings and stabilizing rotors to keep it steady while aloft, as well as wall and ceiling IR sensors.Rovio is a "home exploration and telepresence" robot (meaning it doesn't do very much), featuring WiFi, a remotely-controlled directional webcam capable of streaming audio and video, self-docking and recharging, and "NorthStar" AI navigation (which WowWee describes as a micro-GPS like system that makes Rovio aware of its surroundings with "pinpoint accuracy").If neither of those caught your fancy, we think the ironically anthropomorphized Mr. Personality might meet you in the middle. Featuring an LCD facial readout, downloadable personalities (via USB and SD), Ruxpin-esque story and joke telling and "conversation", as well as the usual IR and audio sensors."

Meet I-Sobot, 6.5 Inches of Advanced Technology Ready for You to Take Home!

2008-01-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

From: New York Times
"Not Exactly the Jetsons, but Getting Closer"
"Robots are still far from being the chatty companions seen in science-fiction movies. But some toy robots are becoming more than just conversation pieces.
According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, sales of robotic and interactive playmates in the United States were $284 million in the 12 months ended in October, up from $213 million in the previous 12 months.

One recent entry is the i-Sobot from Tomy of Japan. Only 6.5 inches tall, the i-Sobot has a list price of $299, making it less expensive than other advanced robots on the market, which often cost more than $1,000.

The i-Sobot has 17 motors to move its limbs, making it surprisingly fluid. According to James Kuffner, an assistant professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, robots that have 20 or more motors can replicate most human movement.
Like many other toy robots, the i-Sobot has a humanoid shape, which is not accidental, Professor Kuffner said. “A human shape has an appeal,” he said. “A dishwasher will only wash dishes, but a humanoid robot can do more.”
Among the things they do is fight. Professor Kuffner said that in Japan and South Korea, the centers of innovation in toy robots, people often have toy robot battles.
By 2026, he estimates, consumer robots should be able to perform many chores people find hazardous or distasteful. Honda the carmaker and a leader in robot design and research, has estimated that a robot the size of a typical 12-year-old can do most household tasks, he said.
The obstacles to building a robot of that size have to do with weight and cost. As robots get larger, they need more gears to move, making them heavier and more expensive.
Robots may also start to look more human, adding facial features and delicate hands, but that poses a psychological problem known as the uncanny valley syndrome. That idea, which was introduced in 1970 by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese roboticist, refers to the disquieting effect that objects, particularly robots, have on people if they look too human.
“As you get closer to something human, but it is not a human, it is frightening..."
Read the full article at its source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/technology/personaltech/03how.html?8cir=&_r=1&oref=slogin&emc=cir&pagewanted=print

Virtual Robotics Program - FREE!

2007-12-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

I can think of no other body of practice/ approach to teaching and learning that is more perfect for today's students than Robotics. The only drawback I can think of is the expense of purchasing robotics kits, something that can put this highly accessible approach beyond the grasp of so many schools. Fortunately, there are virtual robotics programs which allow for much of the concepts and content to be learned without actually building robots in the real world.

Here's an item this morning's surfing turned up. Looks like a gem waiting to be discovered by the world of Education.

From ROBOMIND.net
Introduction
ROBO is a new and very simple educational programming language that will familiarize you with the basics of computer science. You will also be introduced into popular programming techniques, and you will gain an insight into areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence. These skills will be gained by creating programs for a robot.

The robot
The robot is capable of performing several actions. It can drive, look around, move items and paint. This can all be done in different environments that are made up of blocks.

The ROBO programming language
ROBO is designed in such a way that you can start exploring and programming right away. A special language has been written that consists of a concise set of rules and is aimed at programming a robot. As a result there are a lot of opportunities to create your own programs and experience the principles that lay at the heart of most other programming languages..."

Get the whole 9 and free download @:
http://www.robomind.net/en/introduction.htm +

http://www.robomind.net/en/download.html

Mark

Yikes! Elvis IS Alive and Doing His Act @ the Mall!

2007-12-29T15:56:00.000-05:00

After leaving the Apple Store at the mall the other day (I bought an iPod for my wife’s birthday), I stopped in to browse at one of my favorite stores – The Shaper Image.
Cool stuff as always, but I nearly did a double take on my way out as no fewer than 6 life size robot busts of The King himself stared me down from their shelf.

WowWee’s Alive Elvis robot sells for $199. He is wearing a faux black leather jacket and has a thick head of cheesy ‘doll’s hair’ that can rival The Donald’s comb over mop. Elvis can be switched on to sing for you from his well known repertoire or you can toggle to karaoke mode to do a duet with him. Either way he is OUTRAGEOUS!

What’s so cool about this is that it was just a couple of years ago that only a very, very few – people like the operators of Disney World – could eve hope to get their hands on this level of entertainment robotics. Now, post Xmas mall browsers can bring it home without putting too much of a dent in their plastic.

I pumped the guy at the store for the public’s reaction when Elvis was set out for holiday shopping. He shared with me that he got everything from “Oy!” to “Wrap him up. I gotta have it!” Hey, if your lonesome tonight, this may be the way to go…

Be Smart - Stay on This Killing Machine's Friends List!

2007-12-18T18:10:00.000-05:00

From Fortune Magazine:
"Killer robots could replace soldiers: Robotex, a Silicon Valley start-up, combines engineering skill and groundbreaking weaponry to create a new generation of soldiers."
"NEW YORK (Fortune Magazine) -- It's 1900 hours on Veterans Day in Fayetteville, N.C., a pistol shot from the Fort Bragg military base. Ten minutes ago a 25-year-old self-taught engineer named Adam Gettings pulled into the Waffle House parking lot, lifted the hatch of his black SUV, and unveiled what could very well be the future of urban warfare: a toy-like but gun-wielding robot designed to replace human soldiers on the battlefield.

It's two feet tall, travels ten miles an hour, and spins on a dime. Remote-controlled over an encrypted frequency that jams nearby radios and cellphones, it'll blow a ten-inch hole through a steel door with deadly accuracy from 400 meters.

Now Gettings is sitting calmly on the other side of a plate of fried eggs and sliced tomatoes, talking about how his company, Robotex, has teamed up with a wild-eyed Tennessee shotgun designer to rethink the development strategy for military technology. "

The idea that you can use investor money rather than [government] research money - that's a new thing," says Gettings, who's in town for SpecOps, a war-fighter technology conference.

Military contractors typically get the funding to build, test, and sell new weapons systems from federal agencies. It can take forever.

Robotex, based in Palo Alto, is financed by angel investors and went from idea to product in six months. "This is the new defense, Silicon Valley-style," says Gettings. "You build only what's necessary, iterate quickly, and keep the price low."

How low? Try $30,000 to $50,000. A similar bot, the Talon, which was developed by defense contractor Foster-Miller and is being tested in Iraq, costs six times that amount. "Our system does all the same things as the Talon, weighs half as much, and costs a fraction," says Gettings.

An endorsement from Blackwater
Robotex is the brainchild of Terry Izumi, a reclusive filmmaker who comes from a long line of samurai warriors, has trained Secret Service agents, and worked both at DreamWorks (Charts) and in Disney's (Charts, Fortune 500) Imagineering division.

When Izumi decided to build a better war robot in 2005, he recruited Nathan Gettings, a former PayPal software engineer and founder of Palantir Technologies, who brought in his brother Adam as well as a fourth (silent) partner who hails from both PayPal and YouTube. They had a prototype in no time. But they needed a weapon, and that's how Jerry Baber, his revolutionary shotgun, and a pilotless mini-helicopter come into the picture..."
Read the full article @ its source:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/03/technology/robotex.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007120412