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spacer Inspiration from Sculpture
Posted 17 Nov 2006 at 10:33 CST by Rog-a-matic
The biomechanical style of artists like Lewis Tardy could provide robot builders with much-needed inspiration for visually appealing designs. A recent work named "Reconstruction" is created from plates and hardware used for facial reconstructive surgery.

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spacer Wireless Power Transmission For Robots
Posted 16 Nov 2006 at 13:41 CST by steve
Several users sent links to a recent Science Daily story on the development of wireless energy transmission technology by Marin Soljačić of MIT. While the media is hyping its use for powering handheld gadgets such as cellphones, it could be more useful for powering robots. The technology works on the same principle of induction that allows transformers to work but, in this case, the induction operates over larger distances. For details on how the process works as well as suggestions for application in the field of MEMS and nano-robotics, see the paper, "Wireless Non-Radiative Energy Transmission" (PDF format). Oddly, Science Daily says, "non-radiative energy transfer is a novel application no one seems to have pursued before". Apparently, they forgot that Nikola Tesla spent a good part of his life demonstrating and patenting wireless power transmission techniques including some based on what he called "electrostatic induction".

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spacer A Burning Ring of Fire-Fighting Robots
Posted 15 Nov 2006 at 10:18 CST by steve
Roland Piquepaille writes, "Computer scientists at the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) have developed a new kind of software to monitor wireless sensor networks. For example, their software agents can help robots to navigate through simulated fires. Their real innovation is that their software agents are able to clone themselves, creating a ring of software around the fire. This very flexible approach to monitoring wireless sensor networks could be used in a wide variety of applications, like safeguarding containers in a warehouse -- or on boats." For more details on this approach to fire-fighting robots, see Roland's blog.

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spacer Jack Williamson Dies at 98
Posted 14 Nov 2006 at 14:20 CST by steve
Jack Williamson, aka the 'Dean of SF', is dead at age 98. Williams coined the word Android in 1936 and was the first to use it in its modern sense in his 1948 novel, The Humanoids. He coined other science fiction words and phrases such as terraforming, genetic engineering, psionics, spaceport, prime directive, ion drive, Tellurian, neutronium. Many have since been adopted by science during his long writing career, which stretched from 1928 to 2005. His 1949 novel, The Humanoids, and it's 1980 sequel, The Humanoid Touch, speculate on artificial beings and AI. Another Williamson favorite among roboticists is the short story on which the Humanoids series was based, With Folded Hands, about the dangers of creating a robot work force whose only guiding principle is "to serve and obey and guard men from harm". In his 2001 novel, Terraforming Earth, robots stationed on the Moon attempt to reseed life on Earth after the planet is devastated and thrust into a new ice age by an asteroid impact.

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spacer Talking Robots: Francesco Mondada
Posted 13 Nov 2006 at 13:46 CST by steve
The latest episode of the EPFL podcast, Talking Robots, is out. This edition includes an interview of Francesco Mondada on the subject of starting a business in research robotics. "Francesco Mondada is a researcher at the LSRO at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is the designer of the Khepera robot, which at its introduction in 1995 set a new standard for research and educational robots." Mondada has also worked on the design of self-organizing, self-assembling robots, and studied mixed societies of animals and robots.

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spacer OROCOS Version 1.0 Released
Posted 10 Nov 2006 at 19:25 CST by steve
The Open RObot COntrol System (OROCOS) project reached a milestone today with the release of version 1.0 of their C++ toolkit. The OROCOS project provides three tightly integrated pieces of software. The first piece of software is a realtime control framework. The second is a robot control package consisting of class libraries for control, motion generation, kinematics, dynamics, and other robot-specific algorithms. The third is an application independent framework for inference in Dynamic Bayesian Networks. OROCOS is Free Software licensed under the GNU GPL. If you've been thinking about building a PC-based robot, this would provide a great software base to start from. The full text of their release announcement is included below.

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spacer Visualization of Pallets
Posted 9 Nov 2006 at 16:42 CST by steve
With all the war robots being built these days some might be thinking it's time for robots to visualize world peace. Instead, NIST researchers are helping robots to visualize pallets. Pallets on the factory floor need to be precisely visualized so robot forklifts can model the location and orientation as they approach. Using LADAR (Laser Detection and Ranging) sensors, the researchers gave robots the ability to visualize both the pallets and the position of any humans or other obstacles in the robot's path. A second sensor, called a Panner, or panning laser ranger, was also used. The robots used the sensor data to build up 3D data point clouds of objects in their environment.

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spacer Teaching Robots to do the Dishes
Posted 8 Nov 2006 at 22:42 CST by steve
A group at Stanford University has been working on the problem of creating robots that can peform everyday tasks. Among the tasks they've selected are cleaning up after a dinner party, "fetching a person or object from an office upon verbal request, showing guests around a dynamic environment and assembling an IKEA bookshelf using multiple tools". The first task involves some seemingly simple problems such as finding the dirty dishes left over from the dinner party, picking them up, and placing them in the dishwasher. The group of 10 professors and 30 students have solved a small part of that problem. They've created software that allows a robot to examine an unfamiliar object and determine how to pick it up. They expect it make take another decade to produce a consumer-ready robot that does the job. For more details see the Stanford AI Robot (STAIR) project website.

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spacer BBC Takes a Look at Top Japan Robot Lab
Posted 6 Nov 2006 at 14:09 CST by steve
A BBC photo gallery offers a glimpse inside the robot lab at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where Professor Shigeo Hirose has been developing robots for several decades. There are several interesting robots here, ranging from one of the first serpentine robots, developed in 1972, to a more recent 7 ton mountain climbing robot. More photos and detailed descriptions can be found on the Hirose-Fukushima Robotics Lab website.

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spacer Robots that kill and Robots that don't
Posted 4 Nov 2006 at 19:16 CST by steve
The folks over Sci Fi Tech posted a story on Samsung's new killer robot that can autonomous track humans visually and fire an automatic weapon at them. Known as the Samsung Techwin SGR-A1, the robots will be deployed along the DMZ between North and South Korea in 2007, replacing 650,000 South Korean troops. While Samsung is busy making robots more dangerous, Swiss company Neuronics AG is working on making robots safer. They've developed a new low speed, high precision robot arm, called Katana, that can work side by side with humans without endangering them. Conventional industrial robots are very dangerous and require safety fences to keep humans out of harms way.

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spacer Vex is Back!
Posted 3 Nov 2006 at 11:15 CST by steve
When Radio Shack discontinued the Vex Robotics Design System, we weren't sure what that meant for the future of Vex (though robot builders appreciated the chance to pick up the kits at half price while they lasted!). Now it appears that Vex is back with stronger backers and improved components. Tom Atwood of Robot Magazine writes, "We met with Revell Monogram at the recent iHobbyExpo show in Chicago and learned that they have partnered with IFI to market a new, enhanced VEX Robotics System." Tom has posted a news release, prototype photo, and more details at Robot Magazine's website. With Revell Monogram and Innovation First, Inc. behind the Vex system it should have a promising future.

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spacer Planetary Society on Robots vs Humans
Posted 2 Nov 2006 at 14:52 CST by steve
The question of robots versus humans as explorers and colonizers of space seems to come up more often these days. The Planetary Society recently posted a podcast of a discussion at the American Astronomical Society's division for Planetary Sciences on the rule of humans vs. robot in space exploration. Among the participants are Buzz Aldrin, Jim Bell, Louis Friedman of the Planetary Society, and Chris McKay of NASA. The subject of science vs. exploration is also covered in the brief podcast. We last covered the robots vs. humans debate in our August story about James van Allen.

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spacer Information Flow in Sensorimotor Networks
Posted 31 Oct 2006 at 13:55 CST by steve
In a newly released paper by Olaf Sporns and Max Lungarella titled, Mapping Information Flow in Sensorimotor Networks (PDF format), the researchers confirm what many have suspected for some time. Intelligence is not simply a function of the brain. The full loop between brain, effectors, and sensors is crucial to the development of what we consider intelligent behavior. This means the shape and size of your robot must be considered when determining the behavior. Their research explains why trying to create AI in a disembodied computer is so much harder than creating intelligent robots. It also means that understanding the behavior of animals is not as simple as just studying the brain and nervous system. For more, see the recent Science Daily story or the original Indiana University news release. Roland Piquepaille also covered this story recently in his blog and has written more commentary on the research.

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spacer Talking Robots: Barbara Webb
Posted 30 Oct 2006 at 23:17 CST by steve
The latest episode of the Talking Robots podcast is out. This time they interview Barbara Webb, head of the Cricket Lab at University of Edinburgh. Webb is doing research in the field of biorobotics, "studying how to make robots that emulate or simulate biological organisms computationally and physically." In particular Webb has been working on a robot model of the auditory localization behavior of the cricket. See the Phonotaxis project page for more information. Other projects at the cricket lab include biomorphic wind sensing, an optical flow system based on the fly's optomotor system, and a legged locomotion model based on walking stick insects.

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