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robots.net blogroll | 17 Nov 2006 tbenedict
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| | 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.
Read more... (0 replies)
| 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".
Read more... (2 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (1 reply)
| 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.
Read more... (0 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (0 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (2 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (0 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (1 reply)
| 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.
Read more... (3 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (13 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (5 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (2 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (4 replies)
| 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.
Read more... (0 replies)
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